


Power Rangers: Aether

by Psychic_Echo



Category: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Power Rangers, Power Rangers Zeo
Genre: Cameos by canon Power Rangers characters, Gen, Lengthy Chapters, Original Ranger Team, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Power Rangers Characters, References to Canon, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Some Children of Power Rangers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-16
Updated: 2017-11-13
Packaged: 2018-12-02 20:15:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 62,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11516646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Psychic_Echo/pseuds/Psychic_Echo
Summary: The Year is 2028, and the cities of Angel Grove and Stone Canyon are under attack by the Machine Empire's King Aradon and his forces. They are opposed by an Organization calling themselves the United Alliance of Heroes. However, inside of King Aradon Is the evil spirit of a powerful Demon known as Briezora whom attempted to conquer the world 20 millennia ago.  A group of individuals will be drawn together to defend the Earth.





	1. Hero of Hope

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 20 Millennia ago warriors from the Light Realm of Elysia known as the Zenith Elysian Order battled against the Evil Nightmare King Briezora. Now, Briezora had found a way back to Earth, through the aid of the Machine Empire's King Aradon.   
> A young human teenager is chosen by the fragment of the Zenith Aether Crystal, and the former leader of the Zenith Elysian Order to become the White Zenith Aether Ranger to stand up against the Machine Empire's growing threat.

**Disclaimer** : I don't own the Rights to Power Rangers.

* * *

**Chapter 1** **: Hero of Hope**

The full moon shone big and bright over the mist covered plains, it's silvery light gleaming off of the fog in an eerie ethereal way. From high atop the cliffs surrounding the valley, it looked as if the mist was a vast ocean roiling and moving in waves. The mist originated from a large silvery whirlpool at the center of it all, which housed a giant black obelisk of a castle engulfed in flame.

Upon a closer inspection of the mist which surrounded the obelisk tower, it could be seen the mist was not entirely just water vapor. Hundreds upon thousands of creatures shambled around among the mist. They held the appearances of decaying humans. Where their eyes should have been there were nothing but inky black voids, which seemed to leak from the sockets like tears of tar. Where the skin had fallen from their putrid bodies, there was silvery goo which undulated like a living creature crawling across their bodies. From the goo the toxic mist around them came out like steam. Even some in the crowd were merely just monsters and demons which roamed around.

Deep underneath the ground below the spire, stood a man dressed in all white. He was breathing heavily and wounded. He stood at the foot of a large Demon engulfed in Silver flames. The Demon had the skeletal face of a human, except with multiple plated horns extending from his forehead and stretching back like a mass of hair. His hands covered in scaly lizard like skin, and the size of a small house. From the Demon's back a great pair of sharp spindly wing like bones extended.

"So You're the only one to make it all the way here?" The Demon said, his laughter booming through the air, and causing the entire ornate throne room around the two of them to shake.

The man wiped away the blood beading up at the edge of his lip. He tried to fight back the physical and emotional pain he felt remembering the deaths of his brethren at the hands of this Demon's generals. "Their mortal bodies may be gone, but I am not alone. As the Last of the Zenith Elysian Order I will avenge my friend's souls, and ensure that their sacrifices were not in vain."

The Demon laughed as it looked down at the sole human. He found it almost amusing to him such a pathetic creature thought he even stood a chance against him; and alone no doubt. "Fools they were for putting their hope in only one being, and one as pathetic as you. I almost feel pity I will have to destroy you." He said.

The man looked up at the Demon with a stern but confident smile on his face. " If you're so confident I'll lose to you. Then come at me. Or are you afraid, of me Briezora?" he asked.

"Unfortunate for me, little Angel, The time you wasted trying to get here to me, has given me more than enough time to come to full power. Your suffering will be quick." Briezora said.

Squaring his shoulders and moving his hand slightly to the pouch which hung from his long white robes the man looked up at the Demon. "Well, then what are you waiting for?" he asked.

With a mighty roar which shook the tower, and echoed through the sea of fog and monsters Briezora charged at the smaller human. The silver flames on his body becoming more intense.

As he drew close to him, the man reached into the pouch, with drawing an Eight pointed star shaped crystal. The Crystal began to glow with a rainbow light, resonating with an audible noise. He plunged the Crystal down into the Stone Alter which had been between them. The Crystal shattered into pieces letting off Rainbow colored light. The single glimmering white tear shaped crystal left in the alter. The whole castle began to shake and rumble, crumbling down upon the cavern.

Rainbow light burst from the crystal the second it touched the Alter. The light combined into a burst of pure white light radiating through the area. It's glow obliterating the shadows and the creatures which lurked around the misty valley. A solid two minutes passed; the light illuminated the darkness. When the light of the crystal cleared, darkness settling into the desert, only the crystal itself remained, glowing and pulsating with a opalescent white light.

* * *

The Crystal remained hidden in the chamber deep underneath the ground for almost twenty millennia. It lay among undisturbed, uninhabited desert until over a millennia ago. A powerful wizard caught in a time warp known as Zordon, had established a Command Center to keep a vigilant watch over the Earth and the forces of Good and evil in the Universe. Eventually establishing a group of individuals known as Power Rangers in the early 1990s when the Evil Sorceress, unleashed from her prison upon the Moon sought to take over the world. Unbeknownst to Zordon and his faithful robot companion, Alpha 5, deep beneath the caverns of the command center was the chamber of the Crystal.

Zordon's Command Center and Power Rangers came and went, until its final destruction in 1997 AD, at the hands of the evil Space Pirate Divatox. The ruins of the Power Ranger's Command Center lay undisturbed in what had come to be known as the Angel Grove Desert, a few miles outside of the city of Angel Grove, California.

Twenty-one years later, an alliance of Power Rangers and beings from all across the Galaxy working under the name of the United Alliance Of Heroes sought to carry on the maintenance of peace and order in the world as Zordon would have done. Led by former Rangers; they went into the desert to research the Ranger Power of the Past. They built their base of operations on the ruins of the old Command Center. Through their scavenging of the caverns below the Command Center they came across the Crystal Chamber.

The United Alliance of Heroes began their research on the Crystal. Intrigued by the aura of power it contained and it's mysterious origins. They called it the Zeo Beta after research upon it showed that it held many of the same properties as the Zeo-Crystal. A Crystal which had been in the Power Ranger's use briefly, and itself stored away for many years.

Which is where it stood today, ten years after it's discovery. It had become something of a intriguing and yet comforting presence to a seventeen year old boy named Liam McKenzie. He would frequently find himself standing in the Chamber alone staring at the crystal while he worked on his school work. He could spend hours standing there in the chamber looking at the Zeo Beta glimmering opal light, and staring at the tear shaped crystal

He had grown up around the United Alliance of Heroes; his mother, father, sister, brother and grandfather were all Civilian Agents employed by the organization. Liam himself had intentions of joining the ranks of the organization whenever he turned eighteen and graduated from Angel Grove High.

There wasn't much he could do at his age, he was no skilled fighter, only trained in the most basic of martial arts. He was no weapon's expert-as the last time he had even touched one of the blasters he had almost fired upon another agent after having to ask how to turn the safety switch on. He wasn't even medically literate outside of basic first aid and god only knew they needed all the medics and scientists they could get.

It had probably been about two years ago whenever the United Alliance had to start making use of it's medical and military teams. It had all happened at once, a strange fog appeared from no where. It hung around the city for a while before clearing up. Then people started to get sick. Many hospitals were getting several similar reports of people coming in with a sudden onslaught of insanity, accompanied by a terrible silver rash which was starting to appear on the skin, eventually accompanied by high fever and paranoia, eventually lapsing into an outright coma. The number of the people falling ill with the same symptoms, had caught the attention of the Alliance, and they began researching the illness.

However the United Alliance's troubles had become greater as barely a year ago, they received a transmission from the moon. A group of machines from an alien planet had arrived, calling themselves the Machine Empire. They had become a menace of the Alliances Agents, and were using the evil mist to their advantage to power their army of robot creatures known as Metalliwisps, which the Machine Empire would send down every once in awhile.

As Liam looked down at the drawing in the folder in his hands he shook his head and frowned. He knew exactly what they needed. Something told him the schematic he had drawn up over the last few days, was exactly the thing to give the Alliance the upper hand against the Machine Empire.

He reached into his backpack and pulled out the prototype of the device he was going to present to his grandfather. It was a two part wrist mounted device, designed to connect to one another. One of the devices seemed capable of holding an object; the Crystal is what Liam had in mind during his designing of the device.

Giving a silent prayer of luck to himself he looked up at the metal door. Behind this door was his grandfather, probably sitting at his desk going over the recent data and information regarding the previous Metalliwisps attacks in the last few weeks. Liam could just picture it. His grandfather, dressed in his usual Hawaiian shirt, and fishing cap just covering his greying, balding hair. His glasses practically sliding down his nose, as he looked at the tablet screen. His much younger secretary, Julia sipping on a cup of coffee, as she casually briefed him on the meetings today.

* * *

Liam knocked on the door, waiting for a few seconds to be signaled in. As he stepped in he found exactly the scene he expected.

"Ah. Liam. You said you wanted to talk to me?" His grandfather said as he sat the tablet aside on his desk and looked up at his grandson.

Julia, in her usual warm fashion, set down her cup of coffee, and looked up at Liam with a warm smile, as she offered him the seat she had been sitting in directly across from the older man. She straightened out her dress suit, and gathered up a few of the files upon the desk. "Mr. McKenzie, a pleasure to see you." She said as she shook hands with the seventeen year old.

"Can I get you two anything?" She asked.

"A glass of milk and some peanut butter crackers for me and my grandson?" The old man asked. Liam grimaced as he heard such a demand for a snack being made. He felt like kid being offered an afterschool snack. This was a serious organization and he had serious business there.

"I'll see what I can do Lieutenant Sir." Julia said with a curt nod and salute before she ducked out of the room.

"Thank you Julia-but I'm not a Lieutenant anymore. I haven't been one since I was on the police force, ages ago. It's Director Stone now." Mr. Stone said.

Julia nodded realizing her mistake. "Yes, Sir. Sorry Sir!" She said before she ducked out of the room quickly.

Liam bit his lip as he watched Julia go. He felt annoyance towards his grandfather. He could imagine Julia had felt humiliated by her mistake, and didn't need someone pointing it out to her to make her feel worse about it.

Director Stone clasped his hands together as he looked across the table to his grandson, allowing for the seventeen year old to begin to talk to explain his reasons for wanting to set up a private meeting. He wondered if something was bothering the teenager. After all, Liam hadn't stopped by the office just for a grandfather/grandson chat anymore like they used to, most of the days lately, people had been telling him his grandson spent most of his time sitting in the Crystal Chamber. It had become concerning to some of the Alliance's members.

"So, what is it that you wanted to talk to me about?" He asked.

Liam shifted in his chair slightly as he pulled out the papers containing multiple sketches and schematics for the device he proposing to be worn by Alliance Agents. He passed them across the table to his grandfather whom began to look at the drawings curiously trying to make heads or tails of them.

"Liam, these are nice drawings, but what exactly am I looking at here?" He asked.

"Well, I've been doing some thinking, and I think I know what I want to do when I turn Eighteen and can join the Alliance. I want to put my knowledge of computers and programming into some practical use-while I'm in college of course." He began, but stopped as he saw the stern look of his Grandfather, warning him to tread on the issue of post graduation life carefully, Liam already had promised his grandfather and his parents he was going to college, and no matter what he thought about joining the United Allaince wasn't going to get in the way of his education.

"Anyways, I think I might have a way to help in the fight against the Machine Empire's King Aradon and his army, and I think this device might be of some use." He said.

"And how exactly?"

"Well, you see, I think we might be able to utilize the Zeo-Beta's Power. See, this here, it's got a hallowed out chamber for the crystal." He explained.

Before his grandfather could interrupt he continued on excitedly. "I figure we'll only be able to use the one device. Sure it'll won't be much, but the crystal's power should enhance the capabilities of the Agent who wears it which should allow for an advantage against the Metalliwisps, but the device can allow for the regulation of the Crystal's power, allowing for it to be safely utilized without damage to them."

Director Stone looked down at the drawings again and then adjusted his glasses as he looked back at his Grandson. There was a stern look upon the old man's face.

"Liam, It's a good idea-but you're forgetting the Crystal's Force field. Obtaining the crystal will be next to impossible." He said.

Shaking his head a smile appeared on Liam's face, his eyes shining. "Well, see I've been thinking about that too. We've already proven that the Zeo-Beta shares a connection to the Zeo Crystal, which was-is- connected to the Universal Morphing Grid. It's just a matter of manipulating the connection into a computer chip and installing it into the device. The Zeo-Beta should recognize it's sister energy signal and allow for access to the crystal." He said.

His face fell however as he saw the unwavering stern look on his Grandfather's face. He knew the look all too well; the same look his mother would give him whenever he was asking her for something, and she was about to deny it. She had learned it well from her own father. Liam could feel the pit of his heart drop and his stomach anxiously doing somersaults.

"Things like what you're suggesting requires multiple levels of approval, there are committees, proposals which have to be written to the Supreme Council of the Alliance and reviewed before access to the morphing grid can even be allowed for testing purposes. Not to mention we haven't studied the Crystal's Abilities enough to know if it can even be harnessed into such uses."

Liam crossed his arms, "I'm willing to write up the proposals and have them sent for approval. Look, The Zeo-Beta has a forty nine percent similarity in energy reading to the Zeo-Crystal: and that similarity is becoming closer every day. They may even come from the same source. If the Zeo-Crystal could be adapted and manipulated for use-" He began but his grandfather cut him off.

"There was a reason the Zeo-Crystal stopped being used Liam. It was because the Crystal's Power was starting to grow too much to the point where it was starting to become dangerous. Even with the regulatory controls you've designed, you have to take into account the Zeo-Beta Crystal itself may have far exceeded the regulations-" The old man said.

"The Computer Archives only detail the Zeo-Rangers stopped using the Zeo Crystal's powers because of the advent of the first Human Manufactured Ranger Power; The Turbo Rangers. It was a successful test trial and the Zeo Powers were never returned to because of Divatox's Raid on the Command Center. The assumption the Crystal was gaining too much power is only speculation due to it's energy readings now, and garbled information from almost forty year old salvaged ruins and equipment. The information is vague and brief and doesn't even detail the identities of Zordon's Power Rangers. Some of those details are only being revealed now through contacts with other Rangers working for the organization." Liam explained.

Director Stone picked up the pen next to him and leaned back in his chair as he tapped it against the grey metal of the desk. He then heaved a sigh. "The fact still remains, You're not a Full-fledged Agent of the United Alliance, and you won't be until May when you turn eighteen. It was difficult enough to fight against the board of directors to allow for you to even have clearance to some levels of the Base. They'd never approve of such a dangerous project proposed by a cadet." He said.

Liam put his hand on his chest as he tried to hold back the outburst of emotions he was starting to feel rising up. He was certain he was about to be denied. He wanted to tell his Grandfather he already had his mind set on where this meeting was going. He had been sure his Grandfather would have seen the worthwhile of the project.

His body shook briefly as he tried to suppress his anger. Didn't his Grandfather understand why this project was necessary? Liam felt a firm grasp on his shoulder, and looked up to see his grandfather now standing beside him with an apologetic look on his face. Liam couldn't accept the muted apology. He had worked his hardest on these devices, he had done all the math and calculations and research.

Shaking his Grandfather's hand off his shoulder, he marched out of the room, nearly bumping into Julia who was standing there in the doorway with a tray of crackers and milk. She looked curiously at the youth, making note of his angry expression as he left the room and of the saddened expression on her boss's face.

Setting the tray down on the desk as Director Stone returned to his desk, looking again at the drawings his grandson had left behind Julia crossed her arms.

"For the Record, Sir. I think his idea was brilliant." She said as she sat across from him, picking up one of the drawings and looking at it for herself, going over the data and information sketched out into the white space.

Director Stone heaved a sigh and helped himself to one of the peanut butter covered saltines on the plate. "It was...but It wasn't his idea." He said as he took a bite of the snack. His voice had a slight fearful shake in it

Julia looked up curiously. "Sir?"

Shaking his head Director Stone went back to the tablet in his hands and reviewing the information. "Never mind."

Giving a slightly concerned nod, before briefly looking back to the closed door, Julia heaved a small sigh as she tried to focus herself back on her assignment.

* * *

Upon the Moon, in the middle of the Sea of Serenity, the Palace of King Aradon and the Machine Empire was a buzz with excitement. After all today was a big day for the Machine King's Newly established Moon Palace.

The Machine King Aradon himself-a humanoid looking machine with the build and design of a Greek warrior, complete with a razor-sharp laurel crown upon his head, could barely contain his own excitement as he paced the throne room.

His wife looking more like a Machine imagination of a English Nobel woman from centuries ago, her silvery metal curls framed her silver face. Around her arms was a silken shawl. She sat upon a simple stool with her eyes closed as she played a metal violin. "Aradon, You must calm yourself. You don't want to accidentally burst a circuit." She said without even looking up from her instrument.

"I know Senphonea. But-"King Aradon said as he approached the balcony which overlooked Earth. He put his hands on the wooden balcony, running his metal fingers across the smooth wooden rails. "It's just that I cannot help but feel excitement! The next stage in our domination of Earth is about to begin!"

He then turned towards the other machines in the throne room, and clenched his fist. "I'll be the one to succeed where Mondo and the House of Gadgetry failed!" He said with a loud booming laugh.

"No offense to your dearly departed family, Gasket." Senphonea added as she looked towards the two Machines in standing in the corner. One of which was a human looking machine designed to look like Napoleon or some French General. His suit was green and white, and he had three light bulbs just visible on the top of his tricornered hat. He was holding the hand of a slightly shorter robot whom was female, and dressed in a pink leather with white frills. Her hair was a short black bob cut in design which framed her silver face and yellow eyes.

Gasket laughed, "None taken my dearest mother-in-law. My Father was a weak failure, and my baby brother would have been unfit to rule a kingdom. The fall of the House of Gadgetry was due to come. Archerina and I were only so lucky to make ourselves scarce before old man Zordon's energy wave happened, or else we would have been dust like my dear father! " He said as he brought his wife closer to him.

Another Robot, this one also female, but had the appearance of a teenage girl, rolled her eyes as she looked up from the book she was reading. " The Power Rangers had you running scared, you saw they almost had Mondo down for the count, and you took off running back home to daddy." She said.

Archerina stepped forward "Karmelody, how dare you say that! We were not scared of those humans!" She said.

"Were too!" Karmelody said.

"Were not!"

"Too!"

"Girls, Girls," King Aradon said as he stepped in-between the two bickering women. Each one stomping slightly in protest and annoyance of the other as they turned their back to each other, "Stop your arguing. What happened in the past isn't of importance right now! What matters now, is that we are here together and our family is on the brink of triumph conquering Earth." He said.

The dull clunk of approaching Cyborgs caught the group's attention as a band of machines entered into the throne room; Led by a tall Female Android who looked like a doctor, complete with a long doctor's coat fashioned out of metal. There were two behind her, one looking more like professional wrestler than anything else. The other was a smaller one, whom was wearing a form fitting bodysuit in appearance. He almost appeared to be out of a sci-fi fantasy, he had a blade strung up on his back, and his face was a featureless helmet, except for a mouth which was only designed on to the face for decoration like a helmet.

King Aradon held his arms out to the trio. "Ahh, and there she is now, the Machine of the hour, My Dearest General Galexia, and of course not to forget our two generals Invidia and Noh. What wonderful news do you bring?" He asked.

Galexia bowed briefly to the King and the royal family, as did her cohorts, before she began to speak. "The device is ready my lord. With it, we can utilize the Pandora Mist, and enhance our Metalliwisp Soldiers. I've already tested it on one of the Metalliwisps, with magnificent results." She said as she stepped aside to allow for another creature to make it's way into the throne room.

The Creature looked like a strange cyborg combination of an Arabic genie and a clown, with metal spots upon it's body where it's skin looked torn away. There was a silver collar implanted directly into the creature's neck.

" _He's gross_!" Karmelody said as she looked at the strange creature in bewilderment. She poked the creature, "-not to mention kind of fleshy." she added.

"He's fantastic! What is he?!" King Aradon asked looking at his General and then to the monster.

Galexia laughed, covering her mouth in an almost arrogant manner, "This is Genjester. He's the second level of Metalliwisps solider. The CyberShade, If you will, created from just a simple Solider, but with cybernetic enhancement, and an injection of the Pandora Mist." She explained.

She looked over at the Genjester monster and put her hand on her hip. "With his increase in power and his capabilities of using the Pandora Mist to infect more humans, he is the perfect fusion of our machine technology and the ancient Demon magic, and should make quick work of quite a number of those United Alliance fool's agents, and make gathering human souls to power our empire easier." She said.

The Genjester bowed to the King, whom was clapping. "Splendid, Impressive work Galexia! Is he ready for combat?" King Aradon asked.

Galexia nodded. "Yes of course my lord! I'm am awaiting your command to send him down." She said.

"Well, then what are you waiting for? Take an army of Metalliwisps and send him down there! I'm anxious to see how he's going to perform!" King Aradon said.

With a nod the CyberShade disappeared. The Robots remaining in the room turned toward a large circular terminal which was in the middle of the room. With a few buttons, pressed a holographic screen flickered to life, showing an image of the CyberShade and a swarm of cyborg creatures, through small vents along the sides of them were unleashing mist in small bursts.

* * *

Director Stone looked up from the tablet as he heard the alarms ringing through out the chamber. He was quickly on his feet joining the other Military Agents of the UAOH in the headquarters to prepare for attack.

He made his way into the crowd, catching sight of his daughter and son-in-law who were among the other agents currently strapping on their armor and preparing for battle. "Alice, Willis." He said addressing the two as he approached.

The two adults quickly saluted him as he approached. "Dad. What are you doing here?" Alice asked as she briefly embraced her father.

"Just going to wish you two luck." He said.

"Thanks Dad, but it's just some standard Metalliwisps. It's nothing to worry about. Willis and I can take care of ourselves." She said as she loaded the energy charge into her blaster.

Director Stone looked down at his daughter. "You're still my daughter-and even the Metalliwisps can be dangerous. I don't know what I'd do with myself if anything were to happen to the two of you out there, so please...just take care out there." He said.

Alice nodded as she and her husband followed the other Agents out onto the field.

* * *

The Agents arrived on the scene in less than fifteen minutes, several agents stepped out and began quickly trying to escort terrified citizens out of the area and secure a perimeter . Others took a more offensive part in the battle, and began to attack the creatures which were emerging from the fog which was rising up from the streets and coming out in a steady burst from random cracks in the ground.

Alice looked over at Willis as they proceeded to make their way into the swarm. She fired a couple of shots at the creatures watching them burst into mist and goo as the condensed energy pulses hit them.

"Something doesn't seem right. The Metalliwisps seem more confident than normal. Aradon must have something plotted." Willis said as he scanned the battle through the visor on his helmet.

Looking across the street, to the monster coming down the street, and basically knocking the agents who were attacking it out of the way, Alice felt her breath caught in her throat. "I think I can see why." She said.

Willis's eyes became wide as the monster approached them. "What the-?" He asked as he readied his aim towards the monster.

The Monster stopped in the middle of the group which surrounded it, and let out a sadistic laugh, and began dancing in a clown like manner, causing all of the Agents to stare in confusion.

However as the Genjester stopped dancing, a lot of the Agents soon found their weapons were frozen in midair, suspended by seemingly nothing. After a moment of tense stillness the weapons exploded. The impact of which sending the agents flying backwards and landing with painful crashes onto the ground and other areas near by.

"Amber!" Willis shouted as he rushed over the Agent who closest to him.

The young agent coughed and grunted in pain as she tried to catch her breath as her comrades helped her to her feet. "Looks like Galexia's been...busy. The Blasters-they didn't even scratch it. I've...never seen a Metalliwisp like it before." She heaved out between pained breathing as they took shelter behind the car.

The Genjester shot another blast at the car.

Looking over the edge of the vehicle, Willis and Alice both fired blasts from their blasters, which only drew the Monsters fire toward them more as it began wildly dancing, sending bolts of energy out towards the car. They were the only agents whom weren't engaged with the swarm of Metalliwisp soldiers, or weren't currently rendered unconscious and injured.

"Shit! This is bad. Every Agent we've got is out here against his guy right now-and nothing is working. At this rate, this freak's gonna kill us all!" Willis shouted over the explosion which went off near the Sedan. He loaded another energy charge into his blaster.

Amber pressed her fingers to the side of her helmet. "I'm trying to radio the base, but there's some sort of interference! I can't get through!" She said.

Gritting her teeth Alice braced herself as another explosion caused the ground to shake near by as the monster continued firing upon them. "Try Code 21404-12!" She shouted as she shot another blast over the hood of the vehicle.

"21404-12? Hexagon? They're all the way in Reefside!" Amber said.

"Reefside usually has the better broadcasting signal outside of the Space Patrol Delta Headquarters-but SPD's usually tied up in their own broadcasts. Reefside's Base can patch you through to our base. " Willis said before he shot a couple of blasts to the monster, allowing for his wife to reload her blaster before switching out with him so they could continue to lay suppressing fire down on the monster.

Amber nodded as she adjusted the code on her headset. "21404-12, Hexagon. Come in. Do you read me? I repeat 21404-12, Hexagon. Please respond!"

A brief moment of static filled the receiver before it clicked as someone picked up.

" _This is Hexagon. Agent Matt Gray. We read you. Proceed_." A man's voice came over the speaker.

Amber let out a brief sigh of relief as she recognized the voice of her boyfriend." This is Agent Amber McKenzie of Alpha Division. We're experiencing problems in our sector with our communications. Requesting a communications patch to 82893-01." She said.

" _Understood. Stand by for transmission_."

* * *

A black motorcycle raced through the streets, opposing the civilians whom were being escorted past a barricade which set up a few streets away from where the United Alliance was having difficulty fighting against the CyberShade.

Two people were on the motorcycle, one wearing a black motor suit and the other dressed similarly except the suit had accents of red mixed with the black. Their faces covered by the helmets they wore.

They knew they had caught the attention of the regular police and the United Alliance Agents assisting in the evacuation process as they sped past them.

The two on the motorcycle didn't even seem to be afraid of the fact they were speeding towards the line of police vehicles and guard barriers blocking the road.

Nor did they heed the calls from the megaphone which one of the officers was using demanding they proceed no further.

The driver of the Motorcycle, gave a brief glance over her shoulder to the red rider as they neared the barrier, before she reached into the holster at her back where a pair of katana were. She unsheathed one of the swords, steering the motorcycle with only one hand.

The rider in red, brought his hand up to his face in concentration, flame began to emit from the tips of his fingers. With his fist engulfed in the flames, he held his hand out to the open air, where the trail of flames had begun to form up into a horse made of pure fire. He grasped onto the mane of the beast, using the semi corporeal horse running along side them to steady himself as he pulled himself into a standing position on the back of the bike and threw himself over and onto the beast.

* * *

Director Stone had been watching the entire battle from the base's main control room.

He had been trying to fight back his concern for all of the Agents under his command, and especially his Daughter and Son-In-law, and Granddaughter. His fist clenched tightly upon the chair of the communications officer whom was sitting in front of him; the bones of his knuckles were visible against the wrinkled skin of his hand.

He found it difficult to keep the calm, cool, and collected composure which he normally held in this position, in tact as he saw another wave of officers being knocked back by the Genjester's attack.

"Sir, we've got an incoming relay transmission routed through Hexagon Division's communications signal. Connecting now." The officer said as he pressed a few buttons on the console in front of him.

"This is Alpha Division, we read you." Director Stone said, trying to keep his voice calm.

" _Director. It's Agent McKenzie. Listen, We've got a complete disaster on our end, and we need back up-Med teams needed_!" Amber's voice came over the transmission.

In the background, Director Stone could hear his daughter's voice declaring she was running out of energy charges for her blaster. His heart tightened in his chest as he heard the distress in her voice.

"We can see the situation from here. Med Teams are in-route to your location Agent McKenzie." Director Stone said.

" _What about backup_?" Alice's voice came over the radio.

Director Stone felt the pit of his stomach drop. He couldn't promise them backup. All available agents were currently fighting. Even then he wasn't sure if it would be of any use to them as the Genjester had been making quick work of the agents.

"All our available agents are out on the field-"

" _Hexagon Division is deploying Agents now. Hang in there until we get there Alpha_." Matt's voice came over the transmission.

" _What? Matt! No!"_

"Thank you Agent Gray." Director Stone said.

" _Hurry. I don't know how much longer we're going to be able to hang in here_." Alice's voice said before the transmission cut off.

* * *

Liam sighed as he sat down against the wall of the Crystal Chamber and pulled his backpack off his back as he tried to focus on his homework for the night. The glimmering of the Zeo-Beta Crystal was a distraction to him. It seemed to glimmer as if it were talking to him, asking him about how the meeting had gone.

Shaking his head he shrugged, "Grandpa didn't like it. It's like no matter what I tried to do or say he just kept finding new ways to shut me down. It was always one excuse after another. Reviews, Proposals, the fact that I'm not an agent-the danger because we don't know much about you." He said as he set aside the book and sighed as he looked up at the glimmering crystal.

A few seconds of silence passed, as if Liam were expecting some sort of response. He clenched his fist as he got to his feet. As he approached the crystal he shook his head. Gently placing his hand against the invisible barrier surrounding the crystal.

He could feel the gentle warmth of the barrier underneath his fingers. He heaved another sigh. If the Crystal would just let someone close enough to actually touch it, then Liam knew he could prove to his grandfather what they had discussed was worth while. If the Crystal would just let someone near enough to it-

"What are you trying to hide?" Liam found himself asking aloud as he looked at the shining crystal. It's glow seemed to become brighter as if it were responding to his question.

Liam suddenly felt something smooth and almost glass like against his fingertips. As he opened his eyes, he realized his hand had somehow slipped through the barrier and his fingers were upon the tear shaped crystal itself. With a surprised exclamation, Liam felt a shock run through his body,

* * *

Liam found himself floating in a pure white room. For a second a bright glow filled his eyes, temporarily blinding him; A sudden and stark contrast to the dim blueish white glow of the Crystal Chamber which he had been in just minutes before.

This place almost seemed like a heavenly palace. As his eyes adjusted he saw he was standing on top of water, there was water all around him. A pond of some sort. Liam was surprised he had some sort of weightlessness to be capable for his feet not to break the surface of the water.

Something swooped by him, causing the teenager to brace himself defensively for a second. However an ethereal crowing filled his ears, causing him to open his eyes curiously. Ahead of him was a large white lotus flower, There was a large white phoenix perched atop the blooming flower.

Liam slowly made his way towards the lotus flower and the phoenix. As he walked along the pond, he noticed the glimmer of other lights against the walls, and could see other creatures lounging around at the edge of the pond. Liam almost had to stop and stare in amazement at the massive size and the appearance of these creatures.

There was a large yellow Bear, which let out a yawn as it lazily dipped it's paws into the serene waters. Next to it, just bobbing along the surface Liam was surprised to see a large pink armored scorpion creature. It seemed too preoccupied with it's own matters to give Liam any mind as he stood there watching the creatures.

Just behind him a graceful red-Pegasus dipped it's snout into the water for a drink. It's magnificent wings folded close to it's body. Liam let out a slight laugh as a bright large orange butterfly darted under his nose, landing on his finger briefly before flying off and leaping from flower to flower which floated on the water's surface. The butterfly darting over to a lounging blue lion-like sphinx, which lazily batted at the butterfly before returning to it's nap. Near by a large green bull swished his tail at the creature, paying it no mind as it grazed on some of the flowers. A a purple peacock crooned near it and shook it's brilliant violet plumage which almost seemed to glow and shine like silk in the light.

"Please pay them no mind for now Liam, and come closer." A gentle man's voice said.

Trying to muster up the confidence, and not let the confusion of this strange new place get to him, Liam approached the large white Lotus at the end of the room. As he approached the lotus began to bloom, revealing a man dressed in long white robes and a jeweled headdress to be sitting cross-legged in the middle of it. His face was just hidden by a white and gold veil.

"Where-Where am I?" He asked as he approached the man and the white Phoenix.

The man laughed gently as he ran his tanned fingers across the shimmering opal feathers of the Phoenix's draping tail feathers. He then motioned for Liam to sit.

Looking hesitantly at the water for a second, Liam knelt down.

"Welcome to the Light Realm of Elysia. I am Tenshii, the Zenith Aether Temple Guardian. Protector of the Zenith Aether Crystals. The leader of the Zenith Elysian Order." The man said with a slight tilt of his head.

Liam suddenly remembered he was still holding the crystal in his hand. He gave a quick look down to his hand. The Crystal was still there, glimmering in the ethereal light.

"Why am I here?" Liam asked.

"I've been watching you for a while now, Liam. You may not have realized it, but I have been empathically communicating with you through the Zenith Aether Crystal -what you call the Zeo-Beta- these last few months." Tenshii said.

Liam shook his head as he reached into his backpack and pulled out the device which he had built off of the blueprints he had sketched. "You...helped me build this, and draw up the designs." He said.

The Aether Guardian nodded, with a serene smile on his face.

Getting to his feet, Liam shook his head. "No. That's crazy!"

A small laugh came from Tenshii as he gently got to his feet and glided towards the young man. His long white hair lightly touching the top of the water, but not even creating a single ripple.

"Liam, listen. The Fragment of the Zenith Aether Crystal which you hold, is a part of a larger crystal, created in an effort to protect the Elysian Realm from destruction by the Evil Demon King Briezora." He said.

"Briezora?"

"Yes. A terrible Demon whom rules over the Dark Realm of Elysia. The King of Nightmares, who seeks to infuse the world with his darkness. Centuries ago, he appeared on your Earth, after the barrier which had separated the two Realms of Elysia from our reality, was accidentally opened. He sought to spread his evil to Earth, and conquer this realm with his evil mist." Tenshii explained.

Looking down Liam's brows furrowed as he realized what Tenshii was talking about. "The Pandora Mist. He's the one responsible for all the people getting sick."

"Yes. Ages ago, The other members of the Order and I came to your Earth, where Briezora had begun to establish his nightmare kingdom in this world." Tenshii said as he held his hand out over the water.

The reflections on the water disappeared, showing a group of warriors dressed in ancient looking otherworldly armor. fighting their way through a hoard of creatures whom Liam recognized as looking similar to the Metalliwisps, only without half of the cyborg look to them.

Metalliwisps in their purest form, Liam thought as he looked at the creatures. King Aradon has been using the power of the Pandora Mist to enhance his own robot soldiers, strange how similar they look to the Machine Empire's Design. A chilling thought came to Liam's mind as he considered this similarity. However he remained silent to allow for Tenshii to continue.

Liam looked over at the white dressed man, who's serene face seemed to be cracking with a slight hint of emotion as he looked at the scene playing beneath him. Looking down, Liam could see the muted scenes playing, where each of his fellow warriors were dying. "We raided Briezora's castle, but as we descended into the depths, one by one, my comrades sacrificed their lives to defeat Briezora's Generals." Tenshii said.

He then heaved a sigh as the scene changed, showing him facing off against the Demon. "I alone made it to Briezora's throne, aided by the powers of my friends, and the complete Zenith Crystal. I was able to force Briezora and his armies back into the Nadir Elysian Realm. The Nightmare dimension from which Briezora came, and close the gate."

"-then why-" Liam began.

Tenshii looked over at the younger man and gave a half smile, "-is the Pandora Mist appearing again?"

Nodding, Liam let the man in white continue.

"When the Crystal shattered, It seemed Briezora and his Generals tricked everyone into believing they had really been sent back. However, now it seems only to be half the truth. Their souls split in two, one half stayed with their physical body and returned to his realm in slumber, while the other disappeared somewhere in this realm." Tenshii continued.

The scene changed below them, now showing a group of robots gathered in a strange throne room with a balcony which overlooked Earth. Liam recognized them. King Aradon.

"Eleven years ago, Briezora and his Generals were able to resurface, and as you see, Briezora found host in a rather familiar being. The Machine King Aradon, and his Royal Court. He became a part of King Aradon." Tenshii explained.

Liam crossed his arms, "Let me guess, Briezora controlled King Aradon empathically as well, and showed him how to either synthesize or utilize the Pandora Mist to power his Metalliwisp soldiers, and he's the one truly behind King Aradon's interest in Earth. He wants to somehow open up this Nadir-realm or whatever again, to reunite with his other half, and pick up from where he left off?" He asked.

"I'm afraid that's exactly right, and that's what I fear most." Tenshii said as the water's reflection returned back to normal.

Liam put his hands on his hips as Tenshii turned away from him and glided back towards the Lotus throne.

"What does this have to with me?" He asked

Tenshii remained quiet for a second as he gently patted the shining phoenix whom was now perched on his outstretched arm.

"You have me build this thing, and you won't even tell me what it's for, or why I'm here. That's not very fair." Liam said.

Tenshii didn't even turn around as he spoke to the blonde haired seventeen year old. "It is my sworn duty as a member of the Zenith Elysian Order to defeat Briezora and stop him from seeking out and destroying the Zenith Aether Realm, and destroying Earth in the process." He began.

He turned around and looked at Liam as he continued. "However, I and the others are now physically unable to cross into your world, as our physical bodies have perished long ago. That is why I've instructed you to build the Crystallizers." He said.

Liam felt a cold chill run through his body as he looked at the white haired man. There was something unsettling about the way which he spoke, which made him feel uncomfortable. What exactly was Tenshii suggesting?

Looking down at the devices in his hand, Liam bit his lip. What exactly were these things for? He had believed they would only be power enhancers using the Crystal.

"Through them you will be able to act as my vessel in your world, and allow for us to fight together as one." Tenshii explained.

Liam frowned, "Sounds like some serious bullshit. You're basically telling me you want to use my body to carry out your mission? That's too creepy dude. Like, not so sure how I feel about having another person's soul like taking control of my body." He said.

Tenshii laughed. "Perhaps vessel was the wrong word-maybe I'd become like a mental doppelganger would be more accurate? You of course would be in control at all times-unless circumstance deems it absolutely necessary for me to be in control. However, through the Zenith Aether Crystal Fragment you'll be able to use my power and ability as the Elysian Zenith Aether Guardian." He said.

Taking a deep breath and looking down at the crystal and the device in his hand. He felt his head spinning. He still wasn't sure about all of this. Maybe his grandfather was right. Maybe creating the Crystallizers wasn't such a great idea: especially if this was the true purpose behind them.

"I-I've got to go." He said as he turned around and made his way across the pool. However, as his foot made contact with the water, the reflection changed once again. This one showing Liam a scene of a monster attacking United Alliance agents out on the street. He had heard the alarms going off earlier, and knew his mother and father had responded to the emergency.

The change in the reflecting pool seemed to catch Tenshii off guard too, Liam noticed as he heard the man make an audible gasp and turn towards him, approaching beside the teenager to view the scene as well.

Liam felt his heart drop as she saw the scene. A horrible Cyber Looking Genie-Jester crossbreed of a monster, which seemed to be giving the Agents a run for their money. The creature fired occasionally near one of the black transport vehicles, behind which Liam could just see his own mother, father, and sister.

* * *

"This is ridiculous. I've only got one energy charge left, and none of our blasts have been effective. It's like this guy is made of diamond or something." Alice said as she wiped the sweat from her forehead, looking at the empty energy capsules on the ground. There had to have been a dozen of them between her and Willis's blasters alone.

Willis shook his head as he loaded his last energy charge into his blaster. "It's not too late for you two to retreat." He said.

Alice glared at her husband. She recognized the look in his eyes. He had something incredibly stupid and heroic in mind, and she didn't like it. Especially as she noticed he was turning up the output settings onto his blaster.

"Alice, Amber, I need what charges you've got." He said looking at the two women.

"Willis-what are you doing? It's dangerous to overload the energy charges in your blaster-and throwing the safety off is too dangerous. The Energy Charges will overload and the whole thing will blow up! It could kill you!" Alice said as she put her hand on the blaster, as if she were going to take the gun from his hand.

Looking at his wife, Willis nodded, "That's the plan. The bastard won't see it coming. The explosion should buy you enough time for you to get out of here." he said.

"Don't be an idiot!" Alice said.

"We don't have the luxury to play it safe anymore Alice. If we don't do anything extreme and reckless this guy might end up overrunning us, and taking over the town all before Hexagon could get here." He said.

Taking a deep breath, Alice nodded. "You're right. But I'm not going to let you go at it alone. I'll use what charge I've got left to provide you cover fire to get close enough to him." She said. "We get close enough to him, I'll set off my gun too...the resulting explosion from mine won't be near as big, but two blasts are better than one." She said.

Amber put her hands on her parents' shoulders. "You two, please be careful. For Micah, Liam, and Grandpa's sakes." She said.

Before the two of them could rush out into battle however their attention brought to the sound of a motorcycle screeching to a halt and a blur of Red and Black darting past them, leaping over the vehicle.

The two riders knew they had taken the Genjester Monster by surprise, the minute they had appeared on scene. They weren't dressed in military combat gear like the other officers.

"My don't we have some brave ones here today!" The Genjester commented with a large smile coming over his half metallic face.

The Black Helmeted Rider had her katana resting on her shoulder. She shrugged with a certain wordless confidence as she readied the blade, giving only a brief glance over to her Red Companion, whom was standing beside her with his fists clenched and the red flames coming from them.

"Well, come at me if you think you can do better! But I warn you-I've got a few tricks of my own!" The Genjester shouted as he charged at them.

The two Riders rushed at the monster, engaging in combat with him. The two of them actually seemed capable of holding their own against it, using a combination of martial arts techniques, swordplay, and the occasional fire blast from the Red Rider.

"Who are they?" Amber asked.

"Not United Alliance Agents-that's for sure." Alice said.

Willis looked over at his wife. "It doesn't matter who they are, or who they're working for if they're against this guy, I say we get out there and help them! Come on!" He shouted.

With a nod, Alice grasped her husband's hand and the two of them rushed out into the field, with a roar, Alice laying down what fire she could as the two of them rushed towards the monster.

The Red Rider and the Black Rider were surprised by them, in just enough time to get knocked back several feet, the Black rider getting knocked into an alleyway, and the Red Rider painfully crashing through the glass of a near by business.

The two got to their feet quickly, and rushed towards the two.

Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion as the two Agents fired their blasters right at the Genjester monster as they came near it. However as they were making an effort to retreat before the blasters exploded, they found themselves tangled up in a mess of thick scarves which the Genjester had summoned from thin air.

Time seemed almost to stop as the blasters exploded, as the Genjester drew the two closer to him and the three of them became engulfed in the massive explosion, which sent a rippling shockwave down the street.

* * *

"NO!" Liam shouted as he saw the scene as the smoke had begun to clear, his parents were laying on the ground at Genjester's feet. The monster itself was only sporting a few missing robotic pieces, but didn't seem to be completely down yet. The Pandora Mist was starting to pour from the open wounds in his body.

Tenshii put his hand on the young boy's shoulder. He didn't need empathy to feel the emotions which were surging through the teenager's heart at the moment. He was terrified, angry, sad and anxious all at the same time. He was hoping his parents were okay.

Clenching his fist Liam looked over at Tenshii. "You're the only one with the chance to stop him right?" He asked in a demanding voice.

With a slight nod Tenshii looked down into the blue eyes of the teenager. "If we work together." he said

Liam returned the nod as if they two of them knew exactly what the other was thinking. "Together then?"

"Right! Lathi! Ready?!" Tenshii called out to the phoenix, whom glided down from the Lotus throne and began circling the two of them.

Taking a deep breath and bracing himself, Liam put the Crystal into the empty chamber of the device. He then raised his arms above his head, almost in sync with the motions which Tenshii was doing. He interlocked the two devices on his wrist bringing them down just over his heart, the devices glowing brightly with white light. He could feel the energy surging through his body as he extended his arm outward towards Tenshii.

Tenshii himself had transformed, into a form of light. His nearly translucent hand clasped Liam's and the two of them stepped into the same space. The feeling was definitely weird, Liam had to admit. He certainly felt stronger, more powerful, and more mystical.

Their body became engulfed in light as Lathi the Phoenix let out a choral song, as he flew towards them, Becoming a white specter of light which entered into them through Liam's forehead.

As the light cleared, Liam looked down at himself surprised to see his usual t-shirt, jeans and sneakers combination replaced with a strange suit of some sort. It looked like a body suit, in pure white, except for a golden stripe which arced down in an angle from around his shoulders to the center of his chest. Two golden stripes similar to the same pattern covered Liam's shoulders and looped under his arms creating what looked like shoulder pads, only they didn't stick out from the suit.

Around his upper arms there were two large golden cuffs, and on both his hands were a pair of gloves with a golden hem along the top and the bottom of the arm braces. Around his waist there was a gold belt with a star shaped belt buckle on it, and a golden holster at his hip which seemed to house a special blaster. On his feet there were boots which went half way up his calf, which were trimmed with gold.

Of course to top it all off, there was the helmet. It looked like some science fiction helmet with a wide visor strip which reached all the way back to his ears, where there were two similar star patterns designed into the dark visor around the ears in circles. In the center of the design was a white design of a phoenix. The visor was trimmed with a thin gold outline. On his back was a short white cape.

"This is amazing!" Liam said as he looked at his reflection in the water, barely able to contain the excitement and wonder he was feeling. "I look just like a Power Ranger!"

" _That's because you are a Power Ranger, Liam! From this moment forward you are the Elysian Zenith Guardian Ranger. Otherwise known as Elysian Zenith Aether Zero: White."_ Tenshii's voice rang in his head.

Liam nodded. "Cool!" He said.

Instinctively, Liam put his hand on the side of the helmet, he felt a spark run through his body as light filled his vision briefly as the Realm of Light disappeared around him.

* * *

When the light cleared from Liam's vision only a second later, he found himself on top of a near by building looking at the scene from above.

The Genjester and the black rider engaged in combat as the red rider was trying to see if the two fallen Agents were okay.

Taking out the blaster at his hip, Liam aimed for the Genjester monster. He was surprised to see the white blast of energy actually had some effect. It tore a gash through the monster's arm.

It caught the attention of everyone in the area, as Liam leapt down from the building, landing with ease on the ground.

"You've hurt a lot of people today, Genjester...and that makes me mad and quite honestly, I don't like to be mad." He said as he got to his feet, casually shrugging at the monster.

"And Who are you?!" The Genjester said in disgust as he saw the white suited warrior.

Liam crossed his arms in a confident manner as he looked at the Genjester. "Me? I'm the Protector of the Zenith Aether Crystal! Guardian of the Zenith Elysian Realm of Light! With the Mystic Radience of the Phoenix! I am The Elysian Zenith Guardian Ranger!" He said. He wasn't sure why, but he found himself mimicking a posture similar to a phoenix as he announced who he was to the creature.

He then pointed his blaster towards the monster, "-and I'm the last person you want to see." He said.

" _Or rather, the last person he's going to see_." Tenshii joked his voice ringing in Liam's head.

"Good one!" Liam thought.

 _"I thought so. Now, let's get him_!"

Liam rushed at the Genjester monster engaging in battle with him. Liam noticed he seemed to have adopted knowledge on a new fighting style. While Liam didn't know anything outside of basic gymnastics and only had a white belt in Martial Arts, he found himself expertly gliding through what he was sure was more advanced fighting techniques.

The Genjester was getting infuriated as he sustained more and more damage. What had happened here? This guy in a tacky white suit shows up and suddenly the tables turn! He seemed to have a resistance to almost all of the tricks he had been pulling against the Agents.

Whatever was going on General Galexia had certainly not mentioned that someone like him was going to show up.

The creature let out an angry grunt as he pulled out a flute from his vest, and began playing it, Liam backed up in a slight anticipation. Within a few seconds, he realized what was going to happen. Two large smoldering pieces of debris near the Genjester, picked up by the enchanted music and hurled at Liam.

" _Use the Guardian Staff_!" Tenshii said.

With a nod, Liam quickly touched the small metal plate on his helmet and held his hand out as the energy ran from the now glowing plate, and down into his hand forming up into a Elegant white staff which resembled a bamboo reed with a lotus flower and a Phoenix wing pattern on top.

Liam spun the staff around, hitting the oncoming debris and breaking them apart as if they were sand instead of solid stone and metal.

He then charged at Genjester, and began fighting him with the staff.

Liam put some distance between him and the Genjester after effortlessly flipping over him. He charged up power into the end of the Guardian staff and hurled it like a lacrosse ball at the monster.

"Phoenix Strike!" He called out as the energy blast formed into a phoenix shape before it collided with the Genjester.

With a large explosion, the Genjester became engulfed in flames, as the smoke and the flames cleared there were no remains of the creature except for a few charred pieces of metal wiring and programming.

The explosion had also seemed to destroy the remaining Metalliwisps.

"Alright! We did it!" Liam thought excitedly as he watched the smoke and flames clear away. He leapt up in excitement.

His excitement was short-lived as he remembered his parents. Quickly he looked around for them. They were being assisted by the Medical Team which had just arrived and was busily loading up injured agents into the trucks to return to base. His mother and father seemed to be okay, they were badly injured though.

* * *

The United Alliance Alpha infirmary was busy as they tried to patch up and take care of wounded Agents. Liam, (whom had separated from Tenshii and was back in his normal clothes) felt his chest tighten slightly as he saw many of the Agents whom had been out there being quarantined for suspected infection of the Pandora Mist. Finally he found his way to the room where his mother and father were in recovery for their wounds.

Looking through the glass window looking into the room, Liam noticed the room was more crowded than he had originally imagined it would be.

His sister Amber was sitting in the corner being held by a brown haired man whom Liam recognized as Matt Gray from the Hexagon Division-Amber's Boyfriend. He was explaining to Amber, he ignored the call for cancellation of back up and shown up any way to check on her.

Julia was standing near the entrance trying to stay out of the scene in the room as much as she could. She seemed so out of place when she wasn't being given a order, Liam noticed. She didn't know what to do with herself. Like she was torn between holding up her professional secretarial demeanor and just letting all her emotion come through.

Even Liam's older brother Micah was there. He was holding onto his mother's hand silently staring ahead. He must have come with Matt from Reefside when the distress call had come through.

However the face which Liam felt his blood run cold at was the sight of his Grandfather's, who seemed to notice him. The old man got to his feet and left the room, with Julia not too far behind. As he stepped out into the hallway, Liam felt his stomach turn as he looked up into the brown eyes of his grandfather.

"Liam. My office. Now." He said as he walked past his grandson.

Following his grandfather Liam's stomach was doing somersaults of terror. His grandfather knew! He had to have. The minute a Power Ranger showed up on the scene, after the discussion they had, he had to have known!

"Grandpa, how are mom and dad?" He asked, trying to sound casual, and more concerned for his parents.

His grandfather said nothing.

"They'll be okay. That guy who was throwing the fire around seemed to have done something which protected them from the full force of the blast, so they managed to survive. Lucky for us, even with their armor compromised, they didn't get infected by the Pandora Mist. The Zenith Aether Ranger distracted the Genjester in just enough time to allow for the Med teams to get them to safety." Julia explained as she walked beside the younger man.

Liam let out a brief sigh of relief. At least his parents were going to be alright. And we're going to make sure nothing like this ever happens to them again. He thought as he gave a brief glance over his shoulder to his mother and father. Now that I'm an Aether Ranger, It's my duty to protect them. I mean I wouldn't be called the "Guardian" Ranger if that wasn't the case.

* * *

It only took a few minutes to reach Director Stone's office from the Infirmary wing. Liam couldn't help but feel terror intensify inside of him as he sat across from his Grandfather.

"Look-Grandpa, I-"He began after a lofty two minutes of silence between them.

"What kind of stunt did you think you were pulling out there?" The older man asked looking at his grandfather severely.

Looking down, Liam bit his lip. So his grandfather knew. He remained silent however, waiting for whatever thing his Grandfather was going to say, which Liam was ultimately sure would end in his grandfather telling him to hand over his Crystallizer.

Director Stone shook his head. "Liam when you presented the blueprints for those devices, you neglected to mention to me that you already had one built." He said sternly.

Liam felt his breath caught in his throat.

"You deliberately undermined my authority, and the authority of the United Alliance. It was an untested, unapproved device with access to the Morphing Grid. You could have been killed." He said in a stern voice.

"But I wasn't, and if it weren't for me, Mom and Dad...and all those agents would have been!" Liam said getting to his feet.

He clenched his fist as he looked down at the older man. "Look, I know what you're going to say. It's too dangerous, I'm too young, I'm not an agent. It needs to go through approval. But I don't care. Sometimes, you have to put aside the rules and all of that, and just do what you feel is right as a person!" He said.

Liam looked down and closed his eyes for a minute taking a deep breath to steady himself. "Sir. My decision to become an Aether Ranger-it wasn't about just trying to prove to anyone that the Crystallizer worked. It had everything to do with family and protecting that family. " He began.

He then looked at his grandfather as he continued to speak, "I've grown up here and spent a lot of time here, sir. My point is; I've come to regard the United Alliance as part of my own family and all of the Agents as members of that family regardless of their actual biological relationship to me. I'm willing to do whatever it takes to protect that family, regardless of how dangerous it might be, or whatever regulation the Alliance and it's directors have." He said.

"Liam-" Director Stone began.

Unable to contain the emotion which was building up in him Liam slammed his fist down on the table. "No! Let me speak! King Aradon isn't someone to be taken lightly; you and I both know that after what we saw today. He's working with evil powers we can't even fully comprehend at this moment. Today wasn't a one time thing, and if weren't for me then things would have gone a lot worse." He was practically shouting. His voice cracking with emotion.

He continued, " There will be other attacks, which could potentially be worse than what we saw today. So if you're going to tell me to hand over my Crystallizer and step down as a Ranger. If you expect me to wait around until next year when I'm old enough to join the Alliance. To do nothing until the powers I've been given go under the approval process, then I'm sorry. I can't do that and I am willing to operate rouge." He said.

"Liam-"

Looking down at the device on his wrist, Liam shook his head, "Even if I were to give up my Crystallizer and wait I'm the only one who can use it. I doubt you would understand...I barely understand it myself." He said in a slightly calmer voice.

Liam crossed his arms and looked down, "I'm not the only Zenith Aether Ranger out there. I'm just the first to appear. Others are going to show up-with or without your authority and regulation. I don't know how many, but they've all got a piece of the same crystal as I do, and we're the only ones who have hope of standing a chance against King Aradon and his Nightmare Machine Empire."

Taking a deep breath and looking at the device on his wrist he shook his head. " This is the destiny we've been chosen for, and we're going to see it through to the end. Whatever end that may be, and I intend to keep that promise" He said. He could feel his heartbeat pounding in his chest at just the thought of those words.

He felt his whole body shaking, and his knees were beginning to feel weak from the stored up emotion finally being let out. He couldn't believe he had spoken this harshly to his own grandfather. He was sure he had upset the old man, and lowered himself in worth of respect from the old man.

He felt a firm and confident hand on his shoulder, looking up he saw Julia's smiling face as she nodded at him to show her approval of what he was saying. At least she supported him.

Director Stone sat across from them in silent contemplation for a second before heaving a sigh and shaking his head. He then reached into his desk drawer and drew out a peice of paper, and a pen. He began scribbling something down on the paper.

He then clasped his hands together and looked at Liam. "I know you will Liam. Which is why I'll be needing your Identification Card." He said.

With a frown, Liam pulled out the card from the wallet in his back pocket and laid it down on the table passing it to his Grandfather. Director Stone promptly took the card and placed it into the shredder built into the desk. Liam felt his heart tighten in his chest as he watched the scene.

Director Stone then passed the paper across the table to Liam. "-and you'll be needing this."

Liam was hesitant to pick up the paper. The paper seemed to be the same size and shape as a check, which made Liam uneasy. He's giving me money to basically go out and be on my own. He's kicking me out. Cool, Seventeen years old and kicked out of the family, he thought.

He picked up the paper, only to find his heart beating faster as he looked at the writing. "This-this is-!" He began but felt his words lost amongst the lump which had begun to form in his throat and causing his eyes to water.

"Julia, be sure to escort Agent McKenzie down to the personnel office as soon as we are done here, and help him complete the paper work to update his file. He'll need proper Identification and clearances, and he'll need gear assigned to him." Director Stone said.

"But-I'm-" Liam began.

"Liam. There aren't many people in the world who can say they've been in your unique position before. I've known a couple of them myself, who were your age, and even younger whenever they were chosen to become Rangers. It's something you are chosen for. No one can say anything about it, not the Supreme Council and the head director of the United Alliance; not your mother and father. Not even me. It's up to you to make the decision; do you answer the call of destiny, or do you step aside. You've chosen to answer that call Liam, and so the only decision that leaves me to make in your regards is whether or not to give you my support. " Director Stone began.

The teenager couldn't help but feel as if his heart had sprouted wings and was fluttering in his chest happily.

"Though as a Ranger, you and your team will be operating without the approval of the head offices of the United Alliance and the Supreme Council, until approvals and reviews are completed. The use of the Alpha base and it's facilities, information, and Agents will be at your disposal."

Director Stone got to his feet and made his way around the desk, as he walked he continued to talk. "However, bear in mind that the Alpha Division does not operate on a public basis like a few other Division: Light-Speed and SPD for instance. As such, your identity as a Ranger and an Agent of the United Alliance of Heroes is to remain strictly confidential to the general public." He continued.

The teenager got to his feet and saluted, "Yes sir. Understood!" He said, barely able to contain the smile on his face.

Director Stone saluted to the teenager before extending his hand out to his grandson. "Elysian Zenith Aether Guardian Ranger, Agent Liam McKenzie. On behalf of myself and Alpha's Division. Welcome aboard." He said.

Liam grasped his grandfather's hand. "Thank you!" He said.

Director Stone smiled warmly down at his grandson, before he looked over at Julia whom was standing by the door with a look of joy on her face. "Well, you two better get going, you've got a lot to do before the day is over." He said.

Nodding Liam followed Julia out of the room.

He could hardly believe the day he was having! It felt like a dream he almost didn't want to wake up from.

* * *

As the doors closed behind the two, Director Stone returned to his desk. He sat there for a few seconds, as if he were waiting for someone to come into the room. However no one came. He picked up the wireless phone at his desk, and dialed a few numbers, before taking the device and getting to his feet.

He reached into the pocket of his Hawaiian shirt, and withdrew a small sliver key. Walking over to a small wooden box on a display case at the back of the room, he used the small key to unlock the box. Inside was a large white feather, which seemed to glow and shimmer with it's own light in the dim lamplight of the office.

" _This is 20301-09, Silver Guardians Division. How can I direct your call_?" A voice came over the phone.

"Yes, This Director Jerome Stone of 82893-01 Alpha Division. Is Director Collins Or Director Meyers available?" He asked.

There was a brief pause on the other end of the phone before they picked up again. " _No, I'm sorry sir. Both Director Collins and Director Meyers are in the middle of field training exercises right now. Do you want me to leave them a message_?"

Director Stone sat down at his desk, leaning back in his chair looking at the feather. "Yes, Just tell them that the Crystal Lotus is in Bloom." He said.

" _The Crystal Lotus is in Bloom? Is that correct sir_?" the woman on the other end of the phone asked, as if she couldn't comprehend.

"Don't worry. They'll understand." He said hanging up the phone.

He closed his eyes for a second as he held the tip of the feather to his head. He could hear a faint ethereal chorus ringing in his head for a second, and the crow of a bird. Heaving a sigh which rang through the empty office.

"Tenshii, take care of my grandson, and may the power protect you both."


	2. Officer and a Beauty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She's an officer of the Silver Guardians; newly assigned to the Alpha Division of the United Alliance. He's a model newly signed to one of the top agencies in Angel Grove. Despite their differences and being total strangers; they soon find they share one thing in common: They both have been chosen to become Aether Rangers.

**Disclaimer;** I do not own the rights to Power Rangers

* * *

 

**Chapter 2** **: An Officer and A Beauty**

Nearly a week had passed since Liam's life had completely changed from what he was used to. He was taking the transition into Agent and Ranger life well, all thing considered. However it kept him busy. From Monday to Friday he went straight from School into Agent Training and running field exercises. On Saturday and Sunday Liam returned to the Elysian Light Realm for a few hours to meet with Tenshii and Lathi for Ranger training.

Liam believed the Ranger training proved to be the more difficult of the two training sessions he attended. After all, he was working with alien magic as a Ranger, and Liam tended to be more familiar with Earth Technology.

Which is where he was struggling today.

Tenshii had been teaching him his style of fighting. He believed it would be easier for the both of them if Liam were more familiar with the style. It would be useful to Liam in the case he was fighting against the Metalliwisps out on the field and found himself either unable to morph and have his doppelgangers come to his assistance. Or in the case they were incapable of assisting him for whatever reason.

However, Liam's form was completely off today, and he found himself constantly being knocked down into the reflecting pool.

Liam surfaced in the pond, spitting water out. His hair and clothes drenched. Tenshii let out a laugh as he helped the teenager back onto the surface of the water, allowing the mystical liquid to take on it's unnatural property of supporting their weight.

Shaking his head as Lathi, the mystical Phoenix, landed on his shoulder Tenshii looked down at his young friend. Liam was wringing out his clothes and pushing his soaked blonde hair from his eyes. The kid looked like a mess.

"The Goal of Phoenix Style is Grace, Agility, and precision. In order to achieve it, one must be light on their feet, and carry oneself as if gliding. Take inspiration from Lathi's flight and movements. Act as if you are guiding him." He explained. He then demonstrated for Liam, proceeding with a flowing amount of sweeping kicks and moving with long but sure circling strides punctuated with quick punches and kicks.

Liam heaved a sigh and let out a jovial laugh as he shook his head, "Hey, I was using Lathi as inspiration for your information. That was just my imitation of Lathi taking a bath." He said.

Lathi squawked and turned his head as if he was slightly offended by the joke. He then huffed out his chest.

"Okay, Sorry. You're a master of grace and beauty, even when bathing. Forgive me?" Liam asked the bird, in a mockingly sweet voice.

With a twittering noise Lathi flew over to Liam landing on the young boy's outstretched arm. He then began to bob his head in a bird like fashion, requesting the young boy to pet him. Liam gave a slight smile as he reached up with his free hand and gave the large white bird a scratch along his neckline. Lathi puffed out his feathers and shimmied happily, before giving Liam a tiny peck on the nose. He then flew off to his perch just above the Lotus throne.

Liam looked back at Tenshii to see if the Aether Guardian had seen the actions of the bird. He found his teacher was standing in the doorway overlooking the flowering courtyard of the temple. He had a look of longing on his face.

Liam joined him.

The courtyard, a place which Liam had not noticed on his first visit here was just located at the bottom of a small drop from the foot of the steps of the marble white temple. There were other areas just beyond the expanse. Other temples which surrounded the vast tree and flower filled field, with it's stone walkways and fountains.

The other creatures which Liam had seen on his arrival to the Elysian Light Realm, could be see among the vast field. An amazing sight out of some dream which, even a full week later, Liam couldn't believe he was seeing.

"Tenshii, what's-the matter?" he asked as he sat down on the top step of the temple beside the perplexed looking man.

Sighing Tenshii shook his head. "It's nothing. I'm fine." He said.

Liam felt a pang in his heart, and began feeling a sudden longing for friends. An accidental empathic response, which occured occasionally. Liam understood the feeling. He sat back on the palms of his hands as he looked down at the courtyard.

"You miss them. Don't you? Your friends." He said.

Tenshii tensed up. His brow furrowed before he heaved a sigh as he sat down.

"Of course I do." He said.

There was a moment of silence between the two of them. The light breeze which blew through the area ruffled their hair. Liam was hesitant to ask, but the question had been bothering him for some time.

"Hey, Tenshii. If you don't mind me asking, but how did you end up becoming the Zenith Aether Guardian?" Liam asked.

Tenshii looked down at the stone beneath his feet for a second as he thought about it. He then heaved a sigh and began to speak.

"Destiny I suppose. When I was your age, I was an orphan out on the streets. My parents died after being infected by the Pandora Mist during the ongoing war with Briezora's Army. I mean, it wasn't anything unusual. Lot's of kids my age and younger were in my position at the time." He explained.

Shaking his head he continued on with a far off look in his eyes. "It was dangerous to be living out on the streets. No one would ever known when a Wisp attack might happen, and you'd be the next one losing your soul to the Pandora Mist-that's what the Mist does, it's entire purpose is to devour the soul."

Liam shivered as he thought about it. So that's what had been happening to all those people. They weren't lapsing into indefinite comas. His stomach turned at the idea. It made him even more thankful his family had so far been lucky enough to avoid infection.

"It was difficult, I had to search for a new shelter almost every night. Having Lathi with me didn't make things any easier. There was an Eidolon hunt going on at the time, and it was dangerous for anyone to be seen with one." He explained.

Raising his eyebrow, Liam looked over, "Eidolon?" He asked. He had only heard the word in video games before.

Tenshii nodded and looked down at his hand for a second as he tried to figure out how to explain the concept to his new friend. "Beings created from the souls of individuals, whom were infused with Aether, originally to defend the world of Elysia before the Aether which flowed through it was seperated." He explained.

"They were the first protectors of the Zenith Elysian Realm. With the creation of the two realms, the Zenith Aether Crystal was created from the condensed holy spiritual energies-Aether. When the Original Guardians passed away, their souls continued to live on as the Eidolons here in this realm. Years later, their souls appeared within those who would become the Zenith Elysian Order. I guess acting with the same purpose which I act through you. Unable to leave the Zenith Aether Realm without a vessel. " He said.

"So, you, me and Lathi are like Three Generations of White Ranger in one huh?" Liam asked.

"I suppose so." Tenshii said with a laugh.

Liam nodded and let his companion finish his original story.

"When Breizora had found his way into your world, he ordered a hunt for those whom been chosen by the Eidolons. It'd been prophecied if those who had the power to summon Eidolons were able to come together he'd be facing almost certain destruction." Tenshii said.

Shaking his head he continued. "If people knew you were capable of summoning an Eidolon, they tended to fear you; because if word got out, there was a chance the Wisps would pay a visit. People didn't want their families to be in danger, and Lathi wasn't exactly the easiest Eidolon to control. Word got around the village which I lived in fast." He said.

"Long story short, one day I met the siblings Marduk and Echo; They were members of one of the Royal Families of Elysia. Rumored to be descendants of the original Elysian Guardians. They took me in, and soon explained to me they too had the same power which I did; and that they had actually been looking for me, because of a prophecy basically saying because I had Lathi's spirit; I was destined to lead the Zenith Order, and become the Aether Guardian." He said.

Looking down he shrugged as he looked over at Liam, whom was expecting more to the story, "And that was it. I started training with Marduk and Echo, eventually the others showed up, and we fought against Briezora-and they died, leaving me alone as the sole guardian." He said.

Looking out into the distance where there were other structures just visible through the haze of light Liam braced himself for another uncontrolled empathic surge of emotion. He put his hand on his heart and could feel it beating in his chest. His breath caught in his throat temporarily. Where he seen the beauty and tranquility of the courtyard he suddenly felt sad.

It must have felt empty here for Tenshii, especially seeing the Eidolons of his friends roaming about, but his friends nowhere to be seen. But there was something about the emotion, Liam felt to be off.

Just as quick as the sensation came across Liam, it vanished leaving him with a sickening feeling throughout his body as if one had just woken from a bad dream.

"Liam. Let's call it a day. It's getting late in your time, and I'm sure your family is wondering where you are." Tenshii said, looking over his shoulder to the teenager.

"Alright. I'll see you later Tenshii. Take care." Liam said before vanishing into a white light.

Holding up his finger, as an orange monarch butterfly landed on it Tenshii smiled.

* * *

 

The black SUV drove along the road through the Angel Grove Desert.

The Driver of the SUV was a woman wearing a dark blue jumpsuit, with tactical gear attached to the black leather harness like holsters on the suit. Her dark brown hair pulled into a ponytail, just visible under the red beret. She wore a pair of sunglasses, to shield her eyes from the blinding midday sun.

On her chest she had her ID badge clipped, indicating her as being Jasmine White, Commander of Sigma Squad of the Silver Guardians, based in Silver Hills California. Seventy five miles from Angel Grove.

She wasn't sure why her superior officers, Directors Collins and Meyers were reassigning her from Sigma Squad Command. She couldn't help but feel bothered by it as she drove through the desert.

She received a call in the middle of the night from Director Collins the night before, being awoken from her sleep as her phone went off. He was requesting her presence in the main conference room immediately.

She had met with them, not entirely sure why an assignment would be given out this late. She felt proud she was being selected for a solo mission; because to her it meant her superiors were seeing her skill and were recognizing her merits.

Her heart fell slightly as Director Meyers explained to her about the reassignment from the Silver Guardian's Division to the Angel Grove base of the United Alliance of Hope.

Jasmine just didn't understand it. She thought she was doing so well as a commander, and to suddenly just have a transfer thrust upon her like this with hardly any warning? It didn't make sense!

" _Alpha Division is having some issues in regards to the safety of Angel Grove and Stone Canyon, so the Director has made a special request of a Silver Guardian to join their ranks_." Director Collins explained.

" _Commander White, your outstanding leadership and impressive record have been taken into account by Director Collins and myself, and we have selected you to be this candidate whom will be joining Alpha Division. You will begin tomorrow morning."_ Director Meyers said.

Which is where she headed to right now. She was still trying to figure out what exactly the type of job awaited for her at the Angel Grove base if they were only requiring the contract of one single person and not her whole squad.

"Guess we'll just find out when we get there." She said.

 

* * *

A few miles down the road, an old white car sat on the side of the road. The hood was up and spewing smoke from the engine. it's owner, a good looking young man with neatly combed and styled dark brown hair, was staring at the smoking engine in dismay.

Rubbing the back of his neck, where a thin sheen of sweat was starting to form in the heat of the blazing sun, he heaved a sigh and looked towards the clear blue sky. Just his luck for his car to break down out in the middle of the desert, without a soul around for a few miles.

"First day in town and I get stranded." He said to himself as he batted away some of the smoke coming from the engine.

Shaking his head he looked around the area. He could see the hazy skyline of the outskirts of Angel Grove out in the distance. His cellphone had no service this far out in the desert and getting to town required a walk to the closest gas station with a phone, to call a tow truck.

He sighed and leaned against the driver side door of his car. He figured he'd have to wait for the engine to cool down and give it another shot. Maybe while he was waiting someone from Angel Grove on their way to or out of town, would notice him and offer him a ride to the nearest phone.

Laughing to himself he shook his head. Hitchhiking, sure it wasn't the safest thing, but the only choice he had. It's definitely something he'd have to leave out of his phone call back home later on. His mother definitely would flip if she ever knew her son was considering something so dangerous.

After a few minutes he heard the rumble of an engine and the roaring of a vehicle pulling off onto the fine gravel which lined the side of the dusty desert road. Looking over he saw a black SUV pulling up. The dark tinted window rolled down.

Huh, didn't take as long as I thought it would. He thought as he approached the car making sure to be careful.

As he approached he saw the driver was a brunette wearing sunglasses and a military uniform. "Hey, thanks for stopping!" He said. Casually, trying to give the most charming smile he could give to the woman.

"Jasmine White. Silver Guardians. Do you need help?" She asked. She wasn't sure what about him compelled her to put off her arrival at the United Alliance base, but there was something about the man in purple which compelled her to help him out.

"Joey Winters. Nice to meet you Miss White. To answer your question, I could use some assistance. I don't suppose you could spare some time to take me into town to call for a tow?" He asked as he leaned against the door.

Shaking her head Jasmine looked ahead, "Can't take you into Angel Grove. I'm supposed to be somewhere." She said.

With a defeated sigh Joey shrugged, "I see. Well. Thanks anyway." He said.

As he stepped away, Jasmine noticed the sun catch on the necklace he was wearing. Something seemed odd about it, and caught Jasmine's interest, though she couldn't place her finger on why the crystal hanging from the silver design was of any interest. Plenty of people had crystal necklaces.

"Wait!" Jasmine called after him, not sure why she was compelled to continue to help him.

Joey turned and took a few cautious steps back towards the car. What was it with this woman? She stops on the side of the road to see if he needs help, denies him a ride into town for said help, and then wants to help him again? So Confusing! He thought.

"Hop in. There's probably a phone where I'm heading. It'd be closer." She said hesitantly. This was a bad idea she kept telling herself. Especially as the young man pulled himself into the passenger seat of the car and buckled his seatbelt.

* * *

 

Liam found himself sitting before his grandfather again, shortly upon his return from the Light Realm. He wondered what his grandfather could possibly have wanted.

"What's all this about?" He asked as he sat across from the older man.

Director Stone looked down at the file in front of him which detailed the information of the newest officer whom was to be arriving soon.

"There is a new Agent who will be arriving here in a few minutes. I thought I should brief you on her arrival." He explained.

Liam looked at the picture of the brown haired woman, and scanned over the information of her military records and honors. He didn't understand. It wasn't like new Agents were a completely new thing or anything. Transfers from other facilities were common. Agents were starting to transfer from all over. News of the Cybershade attack had spread to the other bases and they had agents putting in transfers to offer assistance.

"Why?" He asked.

"Well, I'm assigning Miss White specifically to you. She'll be acting under your command and providing assistance to the Zenith Aether Ranger Team. I think you'll find her to be a great asset." Director Stone said.

Raising his eyebrow and looking up at his grandfather as he passed the file back to the older man. "If she's going to be an assigned Bodyguard why not just assign my family to that? At least that would come with the benefit of them knowing who they're supposed to be protecting." He said.

A small half laugh came from Director Stone as he closed the file and moved it to the edge of the desk.

"It's funny you say that actually, little brother. Because that's exactly what Gramps had in mind." Liam heard his older brother say as the door opened behind the two of them as five people entered into the room.

The smile on the teenager's face became wide as he saw his family enter into the room. He then looked to his grandfather as if he didn't believe what he was hearing.

"Micah and Agent Gray both have been transferred over here from Hexagon Division, upon my request and I've assigned Alice, Amber, and Willis specifically to the duty of guarding and assisting the Aether Guardian Ranger." Director Stone said.

Alice nodded as she looked down at her son. "We're to help you find the other Aether Rangers, and provide assistance to your team in any way possible." She said.

"Yeah. Consider us the official B-Squad team while A-Squad is assembling." Amber said in her normal bubbly fashion.

Liam nodded, and then looked back to his grandfather, "But what about Agent White?" He asked.

* * *

 

"Well, we originally were created to take care of the Cyclobot soldiers and defend Silver Hills-but there haven't been many, well any, attacks of that nature around Silver Hills, so we're often hired for other purposes. Hostage situations, police backup, traffic control. My squad usually handled hostage situation and missing persons cases." Jasmine explained.

Joey just asked her about what she did as a Silver Guardian; trying to make small conversation for the surprisingly long ride out into the middle of the desert. He had decided to make small talk just to calm his nerves as he wondered what sort of facility needed so much isolation out in the middle of the desert. Not only this but Jasmine had sworn him to absolute secrecy of what he was about to see out here.

Secret Military bases out in the middle of the desert? Now this was a conspiracy theory waiting to happen, Joey thought as he glanced into the driver side vanity mirror and checked his hair.

"What about you? What business do you have in Angel Grove?" Jasmine asked. She gave a brief glance over to the man in the passenger seat, to see him checking out his appearance. Grimacing she shook her head. So he's one of those swaggering peacock type guys, who thought the world about his looks and never caught with one hair out of place on their faux tousled head.

Before Joey could answer Jasmine piped up. "No, wait. Don't say it, Let me guess-You're a musician who just recorded his first CD, and you've left behind your childhood home of-I'm gonna say Blue Bay Harbor- where you were the big time football homecoming prom king, big man on campus superhero; and you're looking to pitch your music to a record producer in Angel Grove in hopes of making it big." She said.

Joey took note of the sarcastic tone in her voice, and he couldn't help but feel a blush appearing on his face. He looked down at his hands, folded together in his lap for a second. He felt nervous. He knew if he told this woman what he did for a living, she'd immediately begin her judgement and make assumptions about the type of person he was. Everyone always did.

With a sidelong glance Jasmine noticed the uneasiness on Joey's face. "My second guess would be your a serial killer, and your dead girlfriend was in the trunk of that car and you were driving out to the Angel Grove Desert to dispose of the body right before I showed up." She said.

A small smirk appeared on Joey's face as he heard this. He looked over to see Jasmine with a half curious expression on her face as she looked ahead.

"If I were a killer-would I have willingly jumped in a car with an officer?" He asked.

"I don't know. Maybe those are your targets and you've got a thing for women in uniform." She said in an almost deadpan manner.

Joey shrugged and looked out the window. "You're right. I confess!" He said dramatically.

He watched as she slowly reached for the holster at her hip, ready to draw her weapon. Oh shit, he thought this girl wasn't just saying it to be funny

"Woah, Woah. Take it easy Officer. I'm playing with you. Don't shoot." He said.

Taking a deep breath, but resting her hand at her side as she drove the car with one arm, Jasmine shook her head. "Didn't your mother ever tell you not to play with Police?" She said.

Joey looked over. "Sorry." He said.

"So you are a musician?" She asked.

"Model."

"Blue Bay?"

"Paradise Cross."

"California?"

"Arkansas."

"Ooh. A Southern Boy. But what brings you all the way out here? Looking to get signed by one of the big agencies out here?" She asked.

"The Vale Agency in Angel Grove hired me. They wanted me to move out here. I just got settled in my apartment yesterday and I thought I'd take a drive today to get familiar with the town. But, my car broke down. Lucky for me I'm not supposed to be at the Agency until tomorrow morning. They wanted to give me a couple of days to settle in. " He said as he checked the clock on the dashboard of the car.

Sighing he reached for the necklace hanging from his neck. Joey always wore the necklace. Though he knew it wasn't exactly the most stylish thing. There was something about it which made him feel powerful, no matter what the situation. There was just something lucky about it. Though Joey never fully believed in superstitions, he found it fun to indulge in them to some degree and the crystal was Joey's own lucky charm.

"That's a cool crystal necklace. Where did you get it?" Jasmine asked.

Joey ran his fingers across the triangular piece of crystal. "It's kind of a weird story." He said.

"I won't judge. Promise. I'll even tell you a weird story in exchange."

Nodding Joey began. "When I was a little kid, probably about six, my elementary school went on a class field trip to the Crystal Mines a few miles outside of town." He said. As he continued his story, he began to remember the whole thing as if it has just happened yesterday.

* * *

 

The ground was wet due to the rain the previous day. That's how it always was with the ground in Arkansas. When it rained the ground immediately soaked it up and held it for some time. Mud covered the six year old Joey's pants leg. He had just stepped in a fairly weak spot in the ground.

The event had embarrassed him and he had tried to make himself unnoticed as he stood at the back of the group of first graders as they descended into the caves. He tried to pay attention like a good student as the tour guide droned on and on about the quartz crystals which were mined in the caves, and the formation of crystals.

However something had been distracting him. Occasionally he thought he would see an unusual glimmer over his shoulder, and feel a strange ghostly presence. It creeped him out, and he was already feeling creeped out by the dark caves. The last thing he needed was some creep in the shadows with a purple laser pointer trying to lure him away from his class.

About the fourth time he saw the light glowing behind him, and he became startled by the feeling of someone's hand on his as if it were trying to pull him away from the group. He checked to make sure none of the teachers would see him leaving. Whatever, or who ever was back there the six year old knew he had to find out, regardless of how stupid the idea actually was.

He followed the light, still feeling some unseen force tugging on his hand, leading him through the slightly slippery sloping path. He started to become concerned when he found himself clearing the safety railing a few feet away. He found himself climbing precariously over the rough jagged rocks.

There was an alcove a ten foot climb in the cave against the wall of the cave, where the light seemed to have been coming from. The young Joey found himself climbing it grasping onto what footholds he could find in the occasional glimmer of the light. The guiding lamps of the cave path had long since been out of his sight.

As the young child pulled himself up onto the ledge, he stopped for a minute to catch his breath. There wasn't much room here, and his head was nearly touching the top of the clearing. Looking around, the light seemed to have gotten softer. He saw it seemed to have been coming from a perfectly triangular shaped Crystal which was sticking out of the wall, just within reach of his hand.

Joey reached forward and took a hold of the crystal. He found the rock the Crystal rested in offered no resistance coming from the crystal. However as he pulled the shining stone from the crystal, the light immediately stopped, and the cave began to shake.

* * *

 

"It turns out the mine collapsed in further down the path where my class and the tour guide were. If I had been with them, we would have all died down there. Yet, I was able to get out of the mines and get help. Ever since then I've kind of considered this to be my lucky charm." He explained to Jasmine who was looking ahead as she drove.

He expected her to laugh. Glowing crystals? Invisible forces leading one around? He knew how weird and stupid it must have sounded. However, she didn't laugh. In fact her eyes narrowed, focused upon the expanse of desert and the hills coming into view.

"What?" He asked.

"I don't like it." she said shaking her head.

"-but it's true."

"That's what I don't like about it."

"Why not?"

Jasmine reached into the front shirt pocket of her uniform and withdrew an object from it. She herself had a similar crystal-only this one tinted a light orange color while his was more purple in color. The crystal was exactly the same shape as his.

"Because I found this one in a similar manner." She said.

Joey's eyes became wide as he felt a chill run through his body.

Shaking her head and putting the crystal back in her pocket she began her story. "Only I ended up being the one rescued."

She continued; "My family had gone on a hike through the woods one weekend. I was probably about the same age you were whenever you found your crystal. I got separated from my family, and a terrible storm blew in suddenly."

* * *

A storm beat down on the forest outside of Silver Hills. The six year old Jasmine was running through the trees, looking through the blue grey fog trying to find her parents. Anxiety was growing in her chest as the minutes passed and she was unable to see anything or anyone familiar.

Soaked from head to toe.

The sky starting to get dark.

Tears were rolling down her eyes, mixing with the rain. She was cold, wet, and she wasn't sure how long it would take for someone to find her. Wild animals had a better chance of finding the solitary child in the vast expanse of tree covered hills in the heavy rain than it would take for anyone else to.

She tripped over a loose tree root as she ran, scraping up her knees badly. Getting to her feet and dusting off the mud from the puddle in which she landed in she noticed something glimmer by her foot. As she got to her feet she picked it up and examined it. A small triangular crystal, which seemed to glow in the dark with a comforting orange light, like a campfire.

As she picked up the crystal, she suddenly saw someone approaching her through the woods. An older woman with an orange umbrella over her head wearing an orange sundress. The young child seemed to have found this barefoot woman to be an odd sight. She didn't even seem bothered by the storm.

The woman approached, speaking with a voice which seemed to calm the young child. She asked if the girl was lost, to which Jasmine replied she was. The woman remarked about it starting to get dark and the storm was getting worse. Outside was no place for either of them to at the minute. She had a cabin not too far from there.

They reached cabin in no time, and the woman started up a fire for them to sit by. They talked for awhile-or Jasmine talked, worrying about her family, while also thanking the older lady for being so nice as to take her in. Sometime during the night the six year old fell asleep.

* * *

 

"Two Silver Guardians found me the next morning. I told them about the woman whom rescued me-but they said there had been no one else was in the cabin. The property abandoned for years." Jasmine said shaking her head as she finished her story.

Joey shivered. "Creepy!"

"Yeah." She said.

"Do you think it was like destiny that we met or something?"

"What would make you say something stupid like that?"

Joey looked over, a small blush coming over his flawless tanned cheeks. "Well, I mean how else would you explain how two people who have never met before, and from entirely different backgrounds to coincidentally meet on the same day? Especially to learn they both kept a crystal which they received from a strange occurrence around the same age?" He asked.

Shaking her head Jasmine shrugged, "Bad auto repair." She said sarcastically.

A smile cracked Joey's lips as he shook his head and looked out the window, silence falling between the two of them.

* * *

 

In his palace on the moon, King Aradon was watching the scene take place before him.

"Tell me again, Father why we should care about that Agent and her little friend?" Archerina asked, in a bored voice as she watched the two humans driving along. She knew her father had to have some reason behind his focused attention on these two humans in particular, but why? They could be taken out easily.

King Aradon approached the hologram, switching it off. "If Galexia's energy readings are correct, those two are in possession of two fragments of the Zenith Aether Crystal." He said.

Karmelody was lounging in the corner reading a book. She looked up hearing this. She set the book aside and approached her father and her sister's discussion. Now this was a conversation she liked!

"So they're Power Rangers?" She asked.

King Aradon nodded, "Well, they will be Rangers if they're allowed to make contact with the Zenith Aether Guardian." He said.

"Father that is something we just cannot let happen!" Archerina said in a desperate and dramatic voice clutching her bow weapon close to her chest.

"What? Afraid you might actually have to scuff up the finish on your fake chrome nails?" Karmelody asked putting her hands on her hip. She knew her older sister was getting annoyed with her. She found joy of the whole situation. She loved to annoy Archerina and whenever it came to issues involving her husband and his family having been unable to defeat the Power Rangers.

Before Archerina had a chance to respond to her sister's teasing, the doors to the throne room opened and General Galexia walked in, followed by a Cybershade. This one looked like a pig with vacuum cleaner parts attached to him. Various hoses and wire connected to a large bag on his back.

"Ah, Galexia! What is this you have brought for us today?!" King Aradon said as he circled the Monster inspecting it, admiring it.

Galexia looked down at the computer tablet she was holding. "Another CyberShade Solider Sir. Created from a Metalliwisp." She said.

Karmelody crossed her arms, "Well, I hope you improved you cyber enhancements with this one. The last one you sent out got destroyed single handed by the White Ranger." She said.

With a scoff, Galexia waved her hand to the side as if she were dismissing Karmelody's concern. She then turned towards King Aradon, before continuing to speak. "DustGhoul will be able to take those Crystals right out of the hands of those humans." She said.

"Very Good. Very Good. Send him down right away with the Metalliwisps!" King Aradon said.

* * *

 

Jasmine stopped the car. She suddenly found herself overcome with a sense of dread. She didn't understand it. Something was telling her things were wrong but the desert seemed to be perfectly fine. Looking over at Joey in the passenger seat she noticed he was looking tense and pale faced. His hand was gripping the necklace he wore, while the other one was gripping the door handle ready to spring from the car at a moment's notice.

"Stay here." Jasmine said. She made her way carefully around the car, drawing out her gun. As she approached a silvery light which she had begun to see along the ground just underneath her, she felt the sense of dread growing more. A Metalliwisp attack was about to happen. She thought.

She heard about it from some of her fellow Officers whom had come to Angel Grove in the last few years on missions. They said there was sometimes a silver light seen before the Mist appeared. As soon as the Mist appeared, the Metalliwisps would make their appearance.

Sure enough as she approached the line of silver light, it exploded upwards and outwards before settling like steam low over the ground. From the mist, came the strange Metalliwisp creatures. Human in appearance, except for the machine parts, and the black soulless eyes, leaking ugly black tears like oil from their eyes.

There were at least thirty of them. Jasmine looked around the area finding the fog had snuck up behind them as well.

"What are those things?!" Joey shouted. He was outside of the car, and only a few feet away from Jasmine. He heard Angel Grove had it's monster problems, but he didn't expect nightmares like these things.

Seeing Joey away from the vehicle, Jasmine bit her lip. "Get back! These Metalliwisps are too dangerous for a Civilian!" She shouted. The Commander tone in her voice starting to come out.

Joey hesitated for a second. Jasmine was clearly outnumbered. Even if she is a member of an elite fighting force he couldn't just leave her to fight alone. He had to help her some way! He began rifling through the car, opening whatever he could find to open, hoping he would find a weapon or something. She's practically military for crying out loud she's got to have something! He thought.

Finally his hand came in contact with the holster of another blaster. He felt a slight wave of relief come over him as he grabbed a hold of it. Already loaded! Good!

As he got out of the car, he noticed the battle between Jasmine and the Metalliwisps had gotten far out of hand. Her hat had been knocked off in the scuffle, and she was engaging in hand-to-hand combat with a few of the creatures, trying to get away just far enough to shoot.

Here goes nothing Joey thought as he let out a yell and rushed in to help Jasmine, knowing a few of the Metalliwisps back with the blasts from his gun.

* * *

 

Tenshii looked up from the scene he was watching in the reflecting pool as he heard the exotic cawing of the violet peacock. The crowing and the sound of rustling feathers seemed to be more frantic than what he was used to hearing.

He turned to see the purple peacock circling frantically trying to get his attention. He approached the bird and knelt down to it. Carefully he set his hand on it's back. He was staring at the frantic bird for a second.

"Nabu, what's wrong? What has happened?" He asked as he looked down at the bird.

The bird began looking over its shoulder and shaking it's feathers. Tenshii felt a twinge of frustration as he tried to understand the bird's frantic dance and song. Lathi was the only one of the Eidolons which he understood. He could only communicate with his own Eidolon.

After a few more seconds trying to understand the creature Tenshii shook his head and sighed, "I'm sorry Nabu! I just don't understand. Oh-I wish Marduk was here. He'd understand you."

Nabu darted over towards one of the lights which floated on the surface of the water near the lotus throne. The peacock began to squawk and circle the violet light, and shake it's feathers as if it were expecting the light to do something. Near by, it appeared that the Butterfly was circling the orange light which was glowing and pulsating with energy.

Tenshii looked curiously at the lights. "Marduk, Echo?" He asked as he slowly approached the lights.

* * *

 

The Alarm went off in the base, catching the attention of Liam and his family.

"Our sensors have picked up an appearance of Metalliwisps a mile out from our facility. It seems like a relatively small number. " Director Stone said as he looked at the information appearing on his tablet.

He looked up at the six in front of him. "Seems like Aradon must have figured we were expecting a special guest."

Willis stepped forward. "If it's a few number of Metalliwisps, then our squad will take care of it sir. After all, if they are attacking Agent White then it is our duty to protect one of our own squad." He said.

Amber nodded and hit her fist against the open palm of her hand in front of her. "Dad's right! Besides what better way to get to know your teammates than out on the battle field!" She said. Her voice energetic to almost frightening levels.

Liam felt a twinge of concern in his heart, as his mind flashed back to the incident nearly a week ago against the Genjester CyberShade. If King Aradon felt it necessary to attack a solitary Agent on the way to the base, then Liam knew there was a CyberShade not too far behind.

Getting to his feet, Liam got ready to armor up as the Elysian Zenith Aether Guardian Ranger. However before he could make the motions to activate the Crystallizer, he felt a firm grasp on his shoulder. Looking up, He saw his older brother's hand. He was looking sternly down at him.

"Liam, it's just Metalliwisps right now. Save the Morphing for if and when a Cybershade shows up." He said.

"You're right." Liam said. He then followed the others out of the room to head out for the battle.

* * *

 

They were surrounded.

Jasmine winced as the sharp claws of the Metalliwisp tore through her uniform. The bitter chalky taste of dust filled her mouth as she collided with the ground. She had thrown herself in front of Joey whom battled with a Metalliwisp solider.

"Jasmine!" He said as he saw the woman hit the dirt. He kicked at the Metalliwisp which was close to her. As he took down this one, he lost track of another one which managed to sneak up behind him, hitting him squarely in the middle of the back. Pain racked his body and he felt the wind leave him as he fell to the ground.

Through his blurred vision he was only half aware of being surrounded by the creatures. They forced him and Jasmine to their feet, holding their arms behind their backs. As he vision began to clear up, he noticed the Metalliwisps seemed to be awaiting something which was coming at them from the distance.

An unbelievable ugly pig monster with vacuums and tubes all over it's body was approaching them.

Joey heard Jasmine let out an audible gasp as she saw the monster approaching. "Is this what Director Meyers was talking about? Enhanced Metalliwisp soldiers?" She said.

"Let us go you creep! We've done nothing to you!" Joey shouted as he struggled against the Metalliwisps' grasp.

The Dustghoul Cybershade snorted and shook with laughter. "I guess I could make a deal wit' you!" He said his words punctuated with a whirring snort like air sucked in through a stuffed up nose. He then held out his hand towards the two of them. "If you give me those pretty little crystas y' got there. I migh' let you go."

Joey and Jasmine exchanged a look with one another. By the look on their faces the other knew they were thinking the same thing. What was so special to this monster about the crystals?

"Forget that. You want something shiny, you can have my watch! But there's no way I'm giving a monster like you something so important!" Joey shouted. His response only made the Metalliwisp strike him on the back again.

The Dustghoul laughed. "Alrigh' if you ain't gonna give me th' Crystas, I'mma just havta take um from ya'll." He said. He then held out his arm towards the two. His arm was a vacuum cleaner. He hit a switch on the object and suddenly the arm came to life, creating a strong current of air which was pulling the two closer. It seemed attracted specifically to the crystals.

A streak of fire suddenly came through the air, shorting out DustGhoul's arm.

Jasmine and Joey looked around as the Metalliwisps let go. The Metalliwisps seemed to be as confused and concerned about the abrupt occurrence as they were.

However it didn't take long for the group to find the source of the fire, as two people made their way into the group. Two people dressed in biker gear. One in mostly red and the other in black. The Red Rider had flames around his gloved fists, while his female companion wielded swords.

"Y'all gonna pay for messing up my dust-busting arm!" DustGhoul shouted as he rushed at the two riders. The Black rider looked at her companion tilting her head towards the charging monster as if telling him to go ahead. After all, the CyberShade was more mad at him and his flames than he was at her. She hadn't even done anything yet.

The Red Rider nodded and met with the DustGhoul. Engaging in hand-to-hand combat with the creature.

Liam and his team had arrived just in time to see the battle recommence. The Red Rider fighting against the CyberShade and the Black Rider engaging in combat with several of the Metalliwisps.

"It's them again!" Alice said as she noticed the two helmeted warriors.

"What do they want?" Micah asked as he fired a blast towards some of the Metalliwisps near by, to clear a path to the two people in the middle of the group. One whom was laying on the ground, while the other was trying her best to protect him.

"Don't know. Don't care." Matt said as he punched one of the Metalliwisps.

Liam was the first to reach Jasmine and Joey. He knelt down beside them.

"I'm Agent Liam McKenzie, Commander White are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine." Jasmine said. "You guys must be from Alpha Division. thanks for your help." Surprised to see the armored agent in front of her was so young.

Joey pushed himself up into a sitting position. "Yeah, seriously. We'd have been dead meat if it weren't for you guys showing up." He said.

Liam raised an eyebrow as he looked over at the other man. His information had not stated Commander White was to be accompanied by anyone else. From the look of the man's purple button up shirt jacket over a T-shirt and blue jeans combination; Liam knew this man wasn't an Agent.

This was going to make things complicated; as he was only allowed to reveal his identity as an Aether Ranger to those associated with the United Alliance. Though he didn't know if it would result in a loss of power or not. If a civilian knew of his identity and relation to the Alliance then it would become likely word would get out, and the upper ranks of the organization would take notice.

"That pig nosed creep seemed really interested in these crystals." Jasmine explained showing the orange crystal to Liam. The teenager's heart jumped as he saw the crystal. He quickly reached into his backpack. In the past week, Liam spent part of his time building new Crystallizers.

" _Liam. Get to the Aether Temple immediately_!" Tenshii's voice rang in Liam's head. Nodding Liam placed the Crystallizers in their hands.

"Yeah. There's a good reason for that too. I'll explain when we get somewhere safer. Just hang on." He said. He grabbed a hold of their wrists and concentrated. A white light surrounded the three and they disappeared from the battlefield.

* * *

 

Jasmine opened her eyes as the light cleared. She couldn't hear the rush of the battle anymore, or feel the chalky dust being kicked up and chocking the air. In fact she heard water, and peaceful calm nature sounds.

Getting to her feet she found Joey and Liam getting to their feet as well beside her. While Joey was looking in wonder at the new and mysterious place. Liam was already making quick strides towards a giant lotus on the other end of a large serene pond.

The teenager's feet didn't even break the surface as he walked across it.

"Wow, Jasmine! You didn't tell me that you guys' base was this cool! I mean I was picturing something cool, but not this." Joey said as he slowly walked around admiring the high gleaming marble walls.

Running her fingers along the nearest column Jasmine shook her head. "This isn't one of our bases. I don't know where this is." She said.

"Well, what should we do?" Joey asked as he looked around.

"Follow Agent McKenzie's lead. He seems like he knows what's going on." Jasmine said.

The two proceeded across the stone floor, towards the reflecting pool. Jasmine and Joey were both cautious as they stepped on the water. This seemed like some crazy dream.

They approached the white Lotus, finding a throne of some sort. Liam was kneeling before a white haired-though youthful looking man and three animals. He got to his feet as they approached and looked back at them.

"Greetings to the Elysian Zenith Aether Temple." Tenshii said as he approached them. "I'm Tenshii, the Aether Guardian."

Jasmine shivered as a fairly large monarch butterfly floated gracefully towards her. "I'm...Jasmine. Jasmine White of the Silver Guardians-and this is Joey Winters. Uhm. Why are we here?" She asked.

Her mind only picked up half of the explanation. Evil Demon King Briezora, possessing the Machine King Aradon. The Crystal she and Joey held were both part of a larger Crystal called the Elysian Zenith Crystal. Liam apparently held a piece of the same crystal. They were being offered to choice to become Power Rangers.

Joey bit his lip as he listened to the whole situation. Tenshii was saying something about the colorful lights being the souls of his previous teammates, whom given up their lives to fight against Breizora. These souls would help them become the next Aether Rangers.

"Look, I know it sounds really scary and unbelievable weird. I thought the same thing; but trust me. It's super cool, and you get used to it quickly." Liam said seeing the look of confusion tinted with terror on the two other people's faces.

"I'll do it!" Jasmine said as she took a step forward.

Joey stared at her in surprise. Jasmine seemed completely confident about the whole situation. Was she even paying attention to what she was being offered? They didn't even know these weird people and now they were being told, because of freak accidents in their past, these people had watched and monitored them since they were kids, and now they were being chosen to be superheroes?

"I feel this is what I was being drawn to all these years. Ever since I found this crystal and was rescued from the woods. I just have a feeling this is something I need to do." Jasmine began, before looking down at the crystal in her hand.

Joey crossed his arms. He knew all eyes were on him awaiting for him to answer. It sounded crazy to him.

Heaving a sigh he shrugged, trying to put on a casual aloof manner, though on the inside his heart raced. "One thing. If I agree, and I don't like it then can I quit?" He asked.

Tenshii nodded. "Of course."

Joey reached into his shirt and withdrew the necklace, slipping the crystal out of the sliver design. He gave the crystal a glance for a few minutes. He'd always known there was something special about it, but something like this definitely wasn't what he expected.

"Then, what the hell. I'm in." He said.

He and Jasmine looked at each other for a second, silently promising they were in this together. They put the Crystallizers on their wrists, and placed their crystal shards inside the empty chamber, the covering of the chamber clicked shut with an almost determined sound.

"Alright. follow my lead." Liam said.

" _Crystallize Soul_!"

Jasmine and Joey nodded as they readied themselves for what was about to happen. Following the teenager's movements as he raised his arms above his head, connecting the two devices, and bringing his crossed wrists down to his heart, before pushing them out towards the glimmering light in front of them, which had formed up into the spectral appearance of a human.

The Peacock and Butterfly circled them becoming pure light, and joining with them,

* * *

 

As the light cleared, Jasmine found the familiar sounds of the battlefield reaching her ears. Looking around she found the three of them; Liam, Joey, and herself, were back in the desert, resuming back where the battle had left off.

Only things were different. She looked down to see herself decked out in a shiny orange suit, similar to the two boys. The neckline of her suit similar to the two boys; a triangular pattern trimmed with gold, over white sleeves and under-arms with additional gold stripes looping along her shoulders, and a color coordinated cape on her back. Like the boys, she had two gold bands around her upper arms. Unlike the boys however hers had an orange skirt complete with gold trim.

"So ya'back, and you activated those purty crystas." DustGhoul said as he looked at the rangers.

"Yeah, had to leave for a minute to bring back some friend's of mine. How about they introduce themselves." Liam said.

"I protect the Elysian Realm of Light with the Majestic Flair of the Peacock! Aether Ranger Seven: Violet!" Joey called out, as he fell into a kung fu pose. He was balancing himself on one leg, while the other suspended in the air ready to strike. His arms outstretched on either side of him for balance.

"With the Graceful Agility of the Butterfly! Aether Ranger Two: Orange!" Jasmine called out. She found herself compelled to strike a pose as she introduced herself. She made several windmill motions with her arms, before holding her hands out to the side, slightly bent in mimicry of the a butterfly flapping it's wings. Even though it seemed absurd to her it made her feel stronger.

Liam took his turn for the roll call now. "With the Mystic Radiance of the Phoenix! Zenith Aether Guardian Ranger!" He shouted as he struck a phoenix pose.

"Together we are the Guardians of the Light of the Elysian Realm! Aether Rangers! Ready!" They called out in unison.

The three rangers faced down the Cybershade, ready to rush into battle at any second.

"Haha. I wouldn't get too comfortable in those costume's there now. 'Cuz, those shiny lil' crysta's of y'alls aint gonna be y'alls for much longa." The Dustghoul said. He let out a snorting laugh as he looked at the three rangers standing before him.

Joey put his hands on his hips and shook his head as he took a few steps towards the monster. "Dude, like seriously? I'd be happy to give you my crystal if only it was some sort of beauty enhancing thing. Like, no joke, I've seen pigs back home that don't look as messed up as you-and we lived near a nuclear plant." He said casually, motioning with his hands as he talked.

The Dustghoul shot a blast of energy from his arm towards the Violet Ranger, nailing him square in the chest and sending him backwards.

"Joey!" Jasmine shouted as she rushed over towards the fallen ranger, and helping him to his feet.

"I'm cool. Don't worry about me. Nice to know some beings around here can't take a joke." He said dusting himself off.

With the combined efforts of the three rangers, it didn't take long to damage the Dustghoul.

The metal plate on his chest exposed. He stumbled back from the strike of the Orange Ranger's twin ax weapons, and the Violet Ranger's fan weapons.

"Damn!" The DustGhoul growled as he put his hand over the exposed metal plate. One more attack like this and he'd be done for.

"His heart is exposed. If we strike together with the Eidolons, We should be able to destroy him." Liam shouted as he got close to the two other Rangers.

Jasmine and Joey both nodded. They had been thinking the same thing. The three lined up next to each other, Jasmine and Joey standing on opposite sides of Liam. The three of them brought their hand up to the metal design on their helmets, which glowed in their colors briefly. An Aura of energy surrounded them, as the light shot from the design. It joined with the colored auras temporarily forming a Phoenix, a Peacock, and a Butterfly, before becoming beams of light, which intertwined and circled each other as they dashed towards the DustGhoul.

"Eidolon Strike!" The Three Rangers called out.

A large explosion filled the area, and the light evaporated. DustGhoul's metallic parts left behind. The chest plate cracked, and the defeated monster's metallic canister heart exposed. With a click the canister fell from the now fully metallic creature. Landing with a soft thud upon the dirt of the desert before the remains of the creature fell backwards into a pile of scrap metal.

 

* * *

Matt walked up to the canister left behind, picking it up and looking at it. There was something glimmering inside of the canister. it's faint light just visible through the clear top. "Now you, I'm taking back to the base to have analyzed." He said.

With the complete decimation of the Genjester's heart when the Cybershades started to appear last week, Liam's final blow to the creature had decimated the creature's core. Now this one still being in tact was of some help to figure out what Galexia had done to create these things.

Liam looked at his new friends. He could see the excitement on their faces as they came out of their morphs, returning to their civilian clothes.

However, it wasn't the end of the battle for the Rangers. Liam noticed the Red and Black Riders approaching them through the now vacant field. His family and the two riders had dispatched a majority of the Metalliwisps in the battle, the resulting explosion of the combined attack had wiped out the rest.

"Hey, thanks for your help-I mean not only today, but last week too! It's good to know you guys are on our side!" Liam said with a smile as he approached the Red Rider, holding out his hand. The Red Rider didn't make any movement towards him, and shook his head as if he didn't understand.

Liam retracted his hand and rubbed the back of his neck.

"The Zenith Aether Crystals." The Black Rider said as she approached Jasmine and Joey, "Hand them over."

"What?" Jasmine asked.

"Why? Aren't you guys Agents? Aren't you supposed to be on our side?" Joey asked as he moved his arms back further to protect the Crystallizers on his wrist.

The Black rider tilted her head. "Agents?" She asked as if she didn't understand.

Micah stepped forward, "No they definitely aren't agents. They must be with King Aradon." He said getting ready to fight.

The Black rider shook her helmeted head, and withdrew the swords on her back. "It is my purpose to seek out the pieces of the Zenith Aether Crystal." She said.

Amber took a step forward, but found herself blocked by a line of fire at her feet.

"...and we are to eliminate all those who would stand in our way." The black rider said threateningly as she held out her blade towards Jasmine and Joey.

"Yeah, well, you're going to have to find a new purpose, because the two of you are outnumbered and the Crystals aren't going no where.." Amber said cutting into the helmeted rider's speech.

The Red Rider approached his companion, holding up his hands as they stood back to back. The agents surrounded them; Liam and Jasmine included, and they had their blasters trained on the two.

The Black Rider gave a brief glance over her shoulder to the slightly taller Red Rider and whispered something to him. She then nodded and sheathed the katana on her back again.

"You two are under arrest by the Alpha Division of the United Alliance of Heroes. For threatening a Power Ranger, and the assisting Agents. " Willis said as he slowly made his way towards the two, being careful not the let the aim of his blaster slip.

However before he could get close enough to the two, a blast of fire came up and knocked the circle of agents back. Forming up into a spectral Red Horse.

"An Eidolon?" Liam thought as he saw the creature forming up from the Flames. The two Riders got on the horse and immediately flew up into the sky.

Willis got to his feet and heaved a sigh. "Looks like they got away." He said.

"They'll be back." Alice said putting her hand on her husband's shoulder.

Liam crossed his arms as he approached his father, "On the bright side, they didn't get the crystals-and neither did the Cybershade. We should consider ourselves lucky." He said.

* * *

"So Joey, think this is something you want to do, being a Ranger and all?" Jasmine asked as she looked over at her new teammate.

Putting his hands in pockets, Joey shrugged and took a few steps away. "I don't know. It was pretty cool and all." He said, his voice full of indecisiveness.

"But-" Liam asked. He was nervous. What if Joey said no? They could use all the help they could get, and Joey seemed like a nice guy, like they'd get along.

He looked around at the disappointed faces of his two comrades, before running a hand through his hair. A smirk broke across Joey's face, dispelling the concern as he laughed. "Don't look so gloomy. I'm just joking! I'm totally in." He said.

Jasmine half glared and half smiled as she playfully punched Joey in the arm, making the man wince, and rub his shoulder.

"We should probably head back to base. Grandpa is expecting Commander White's presence, to brief her on her inclusion as a part of the squad. We can do formal introductions when we get there." Micah said as he gave a glance over to Jasmine and then to his family.

"Right." Alice said as they headed back to the vehicle which they came in.

"Wait. What do we do with him?" Amber asked, motioning towards Joey.

"Oh, don't mind me. I just need to use the phone and get dropped off at my car. I can probably get a ride back into town with the tow truck. I won't say a word to anybody about your base or anything. Though, I doubt anyone would believe me if I did say anything." Joey said, casually shrugging as if it were no big deal and he didn't want to be a burden on anyone.

Alice crossed her arms. "Unfortunately, since you're now an Aether Ranger, I don't think just letting you go is going to be an option." She said.

She then looked at her husband and oldest son, "We'll take him back to the base and let Director Stone decide what is to be done with him." She said.

 

* * *

In only a few short minutes, Joey found himself standing before a strange looking old man. He was definitely not the type of man he imagined hearing about Director Stone. This man seemed almost like he should have been combing the beaches of Florida or Hawaii with a metal detector, enjoying his retirement; not commanding a secret defense facility.

"So this is your grandfather?" He asked out of the corner of his mouth in a whisper to the blonde teenager standing next to him.

"Yeah, don't let his appearance fool you though. He's an ex police force Lieutenant, and former detective. I mean he ran the youth center in town for a little while, but that was before he was recruited by the United Alliance as an Agent. So, he's not as easy going as you would think." Liam explained.

Joey nodded, and turned his attention back to the old man.

"Mr. Winters. While your presence at the Alpha Division of the United Alliance of Heroes is unauthorized, and worth a reprimand of Agent White-"Director Stone began.

Looking over at Jasmine, a slight feeling of shame struck Joey. He hadn't meant to get her in trouble with them! He opened his mouth to offer an apology, but Jasmine shook her head and continued to look forward. Director Stone wasn't done speaking.

The old man continued, "However, in light of the recent revelation about you both being chosen as Aether Rangers-I have no other choice but to bring you aboard as an Agent of the Alpha's Division. That is if you will accept."

Joey crossed his arms, He was about to speak before Director Stone continued again.

"Of course, since you are employed outside of this facility, like we are doing with Liam, you will be working on a flexible schedule. You will need to report here at least three times a week for training. Should you have another priority in relation to your primary employment, Please contact me, or my Secretary Julia. so scheduling arrangements can be made should you not be able to make it to your scheduled training." Director Stone said, making indication of the sharp dressed secretary whom stood beside him.

Joey nodded, as he shook hands with Director Stone accepting these conditions.

As Director Stone welcomed both him and Jasmine into the ranks of the United Allaince Joey looked over at Jasmine and Liam. They both returned the look towards him with a confident smile.

Things might have gone far beyond what I was ever expecting when I moved out here to Angel Grove, Joey thought as he looked down at the Crystallizer on his arm and then to his new friends. Things were going to be just fine, better even. Joey knew, between Liam, Jasmine, the McKenzie Family and the other people he was going to be working with, they were going to be good friends. At least he'd have people he could rely on.

"So, like, we still haven't dealt with the real issue here. My car is still like out in the middle of the desert and-yeah." Joey said as he looked at the others.

Laughing Micah clapped the man in purple on the shoulder. "Lucky for you my friend. I happen to be a certified mechanic. all makes and models-and speaking of models, you think you might be able to introduce me to a few?" He asked. A wide smile was on the man's face.

"Well we'll see..." Joey said with a laugh.

* * *

The Aether Temple was bright with energy as Tenshii paced the reflecting pool, almost dancing with joy. The Zenith Elysian Order was being reformed, and he couldn't be happier.

He sat before the Orange and Violet lights which glowed upon the surface of the water. He could feel the spirts of his fellow Rangers within the lights. A wide smile appeared on his face as he bowed briefly to the two.

"Marduk, Echo. I wish the two of you were here to see this." He said with a wistful sigh.

The Orange light pulsed with a brighter light briefly, and Tenshii felt a reassuring warmth in his chest. He bowed his head, placing his hand on his chest for a brief second before nodding to himself. "I believe you both have chosen the successors to your powers well. I have complete faith they will be great Rangers." He said.

He then looked down at the water for a second before looking back to the two lights.

A smile appeared on his lips as he got to his feet. "One day the Crystal will be complete, and with any luck, the day will come when you, Marduk, and the others will be able to return to this plane. I look forward to the day. Until then, I shall do my best to guide the New Aether Rangers in their mission." He said.

He put his hand on his hip as he turned towards the entrance of the Temple, holding up his arm as Lathi landed on it. He gently scratched the Phoenix on the neck. "It won't be too much longer, and we'll be back at full strength. For now, It looks like we've got a long journey ahead of us training the new Zenith Elysian Order."

* * *

 

The dim glow of a computer filled the small room, as a Native American man in a white lab coat looked at the readout on the screen showing a number of equations and chemical compositions.

The man let out a sigh as he ran his large dark skinned hands across his forehead, as he removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes. He had been trying to make sense of the data which he had collected a few days ago. Skin samples of the patients under observation in Angel Grove General's Psychiatric ward, whom had come in contact with the Mist which preceded a Metalliwisp attack. He was comparing them to samples taken from the remains of the Cybershade and the Metalliwisps which attacked last week.

He couldn't make heads or tails of the data though. If he could, he would have been half way to reverse engineering the disease to see if there was a cure for the symptoms.

Leaning back in his chair he sighed and shook his head, and reached into the jacket pocket of his lab coat. He withdrew a triangular necklace fashioned to look like an arrowhead. The face of the locket was a yellow Crystal. Even in the dim light of the lab it seemed to glitter with it's own light.

The door opened, catching his attention. An African American woman with vibrant pink hair stood in the doorway. Her tattooed arms crossed. The woman rolled her eyes as she saw him working.

Around the woman's neck was a similar necklace, only the crystal design on hers was a pink tinted crystal.

"Hon. Come on. Mom's flight is landing in about an hour, we should be heading out to pick her up right now." The woman said.

"I know, I know it's just-"The man said as he got to his feet and approached his wife. He gave a glance back to the data on the computer.

The woman crossed her arms. "Your research is important to you I know. My mother moving back to the States and being greeted by her family and settling in to her new home in Angel Grove, after a wonderful meal with said family, is important to me." She said.

The man laughed and shook his head as he kissed his wife on the forehead. "Alright. If it means so much to you!" He said.

The woman rolled her eyes and playfully elbowed her husband's broad chest. "Hey, Don't act like it's a burden to spend time with mom. She's been dying to know all about the research you've been doing." She said.

With a smile the man shrugged, "I never said it was a burden. Your mom is great. I adore your mother. Best Mother-in-law I've ever had." he said with a laugh.

"She adores you and she's the only mother-in-law you've had. Now, come on. Let's go." The woman said, as she linked arms with her taller husband, as they both exited the room.

The man gave one last look over his shoulder to the computer as he left the room.

As the door closed behind him a screen came up on the computer, completing the analysis.


	3. Power Couple

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A troubling discovery is made by a researcher at the Alpha Base on the nature of the Metalliwisps and Cybershades in relation to the Pandora Mist plaguing the city. The Machine Empire uses the captured soul of a young child to lure the Pink and Yellow Aether Rangers out.

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Power Rangers

* * *

 

** Chapter 3 ** **: Power Couple**

Steam rose from the coffee in the white ceramic mug placed in front of her by a woman wearing a navy dress suit. Her hair pulled back in a tight bun. Picking the coffee cup up, She held it to her nose for a brief second letting it's strong aromatic scent reach her nose and the steam warm her face before she took a sip.

Director Stone sat across the table from this woman, with his own cup of coffee.

"So what do you think of the base Dr. Blaine?" He asked, taking a sip of coffee.

Dr. Blaine looked around for a second before setting the cup in her hands down. A small smile appeared on her face. "It certainly is different from the last time I was here." She said.

Director Stone looked down at the cup of coffee he was drinking from and shook his head.

"Well, I suppose it has been thirty two years. Aisha, If you would like, later I can give you a tour of the facility. The Research Room your team will be using is a reconstruction of the Power Chamber. It is based off of blueprints found in the computer's data banks-and using about thirty percent of salvageable material from the original. I do hope you'll like it and feel at home." Julia said as she took off her glasses, and cleaned them before she put them back on her face.

"While I am glad to have a chance to return here, and be involved in the next generation of Rangers-I do have a few questions which have bothered me since I first got your letter, Director Stone." She said as she put the device back in her coat pocket.

"Yes?" Director Stone asked.

"How did you know I was a Power Ranger?"

Director Stone crossed his arms. "Agent Park recommended you for the position."

"Adam was reported MIA, ten years ago."

Director Stone nodded, "He was, however I received communication from him less than six months ago. He seemed to have knowledge of the situation occurring in Angel Grove and Stone Canyon, involving the Pandora Mist and King Aradon's forces. While he didn't disclose his location he informed us of the location of the Pink and Yellow Zenith Crystals. That is when your name came up." He explained.

"Well, actually your name came up after your son-in-law and daughter's name came up as the people whom held the two crystal fragments we've been searching for-but he was very specific about wanting you on board with our Research Team. We double checked the reference with Director Oliver of Hexagon division-as we knew both Agent Park and Dr. Oliver being two of three Rangers serving under Zordon-prior to the invasion of Angel Grove in 1998-whom have disclosed their identities to other Rangers associated with the United Alliance, Jason Scott being the other " Julia explained as she refilled the coffee cups.

Aisha sighed as she picked up her cup of coffee again and took a sip. Even though they were no longer bound to the rules of their former mentor, her teammates and friends still respected the anonymity of their fellow Rangers. Even though the last time she had battled with them as a Ranger was years ago. The United Alliance gathered Rangers for the battle against an invading Armada fourteen years ago. Most of her interactions with the organization, were through her former teammates who worked for the United Alliance, in order to keep her former identity as a Power Ranger secret in the case she did not feel comfortable giving away such information. Many of her former teammates, aside from those whom interacted with other Ranger Teams which were currently affiliated in one way or another with the United Alliance had not revealed themselves as Power Rangers, even though they were no longer bound by Zordon's rule. They had no real reason to fear the repercussions of the revelation of their identity due to their status as Retired Rangers.

She wasn't entirely comfortable with the idea. She and her husband were married for years, and her daughter was already grown before she even told them the truth. She'd only told them to help her husband be at ease when they found out their daughter had been chosen to become a Power Ranger. She was only lucky her husband was such a kind and understanding man-otherwise the knowledge of having kept such a secret for so long could have driven them to divorce.

Nodding, Aisha looked over at Julia. "Julia, How's Eugene doing? He hasn't written in awhile-" She began, trailing off as she saw the look on the other woman's face. There was some bad news coming.

With a small frown Julia looked down at the ring on her finger; a simple gold band with a small diamond on it. "Eugene is your friend too. You should know." She said. She sighed as she looked over at the Doctor. She forced a small smile on her face.

Taking a few calming breaths, she explained. "It's the Pandora Virus. About a year ago he was sent out on a mission with the Alliance; it was supposed to be a simple intelligence mission on King Aradon's forces." She said.

She turned the ring around on her finger and shook her head as she spoke. The events of the day playing through in her mind. She continued, "Something went wrong, and he got attacked by General Galexia. He got injured, but she let him go." She said.

Dr. Blaine looked down at the coffee as Julia took a deep, pained breath as she fought back the tears forming in her eyes.

"He acted like everything was okay, for about a week. Then the symptoms started to show up. The silver rash. The high fever, the paranoia. We knew he had been infected. It took six Agents, to restrain him when the Insanity kicked in." She said, shaking her head.

With a small smile breaking her lips as she brushed away some of the tears, she looked over at Dr. Blaine. "On the positive, it's been this long and the Virus hasn't reached it's final stages." She said.

She then looked down at her ring for a minute. "Then again, maybe the final stage might be better." She said.

"Right now he's being held down in the Isolation Bay, with many of the other agents whom have been infected. We're using them as a basis for our research in designing a cure. You'll probably see him soon enough." Director Stone said, though his voice carried a softer tone than it normally carried. He adverted his gaze from the two, and stared deep into his coffee.

Dr. Blaine looked over, "How are your children taking it?" she asked.

Julia bit her lip and shook her head as she made her way over to the bookcase. She put her hands on her hips and shrugged, "They don't know yet. I can't bring myself to tell them." She said.

Crossing her arms she looked down, "Eugene and I decided it would be best if our children were not informed of our involvement with the United Alliance. As much as I don't like lying to my son, about what his father and I do for a living; It's safer for him this way."

"Besides," She said turning towards the other two. Julia refilled the coffee cups, even though hardly anything had been drunk from either one, "Spike's got his own family in Panorama City. He needs to be focused on taking care of them, rather than worrying about his old man and getting involved with something this dangerous."

Dr. Blaine looked down at the dark coffee, before looking over at Director Stone for a brief second. She frowned as she took another drink of the coffee.

* * *

The Alpha Medical Laboratories, located on the upper levels of the facility, were far more active than they'd been since the base was established. Since the appearance of the Pandora Mist and the outbreak of the virus plaguing both Angel Grove and Stone Canyon, the attention of this division turned towards researching this phenomenon and it's effects. Now most of the researchers focused on finding a cure for the illness.

Inside one of these laboratories a young Native American man in a white lab coat over a yellow button up shirt sat at one of the computers. Heaving a sigh he rubbed his eyes and removed his glasses.

He checked his watch. Still early in the morning, but it felt later. The previous night after returning home from visiting with his mother in-law, led to the discovery of a piece of unexpected research.

The door to the lab opened as Agent Matthew Gray, stepped in. A warm smile was on his face as he brought in Styrofoam cups of coffee. He handed it to the man in the lab coat. "Hey, Ken. Thought you might need a little caffeine boost." He said as the other man took the cup from his hands.

He sat down next to Ken and looked at the data readout on the screen. "So what have you found about the canister and the samples I gave you? When you called this morning it sounded like you had made a pretty big break."

Ken shook his head and frowned as he typed a few things on the computer before turning attention to the metal canister hooked up to a few of the machines. "Yeah, but I don't think you're going to like it."

Matt shrugged and took a sip of coffee, as he leaned against the chair he was sitting in backwards. It couldn't be any worse than the fact the Pandora Mist existed, and they were being attacked frequently by swarms of Metalliwisps and the overpowered Cybershades.

Taking a deep breath Ken shook his head again and looked at the canister. "They're human." He said. The words echoed in the silent air of the laboratory in an eerie manner. Matt's heart skipped a beat hearing these words from his friend.

"What do you mean they're human?" Matt asked.

Ken focused on the equations and data in front of him, pushing his glasses up on his face. He was silent for several seconds as he ran over the data in his head again. He knew Matt didn't want to be hearing this. After all, Matt directly faced the Metalliwisps and the Cybershades. He found it difficult enough to fight against monsters, but to know they were human?

"I took the samples of the Metalliwisps and the two Cybershades you brought me the other day, and compared them against the biorhythm readouts, and the skin samples I collected from the patients at Angel Grove General. The Metalliwisp and the Cybershades have a high similarity in their biorhythms to the human ones. " He explained.

"What would the Machine Empire need with humans?" Matt asked as he looked at the canister for a second.

Typing a few more things on the Computer, Ken shook his head. "Golems to power his army and produce and spread the Pandora Mist. The more he's got, the stronger the mist becomes and it is capable of sticking around longer, and spreading to more people. The mist is a by-product of the slow consuming of the spiritual energy of a being, sort of like alcohol being a by-product of the fermentation process." He explained.

With a sigh Ken reached for the necklace he wore. "He's using the Machine Empire's technology to indirectly take the souls of those infected. What we consider the 'final' stage is only the final of the extraction process where the soul has left the body. When the rash and the insanity starts, that's the mist creating a Metalliwisp from a fraction of the soul, to begin the real devouring process" He explained.

Matt looked down at the coffee in his hand and shook his head. "So, here's the question. When the soul is completely extracted, then what happens?" He asks.

Ken pointed towards the canister. "Galexia takes them, and mutates the Metalliwisp make-up and combines them with Machine enhancements, creating CyberShades. Both Genjester and Dustghoul's design included a chamber protected by a sturdy alien alloy which contained a canister identical to this one you pulled from Dustghoul." He said.

"If it's a human soul, then what happened to the one inside of Genjester?" Matt asked.

Reaching for a few files sitting next to the computer Ken gave a half smile. "About the one upside of the information I've dug up." He said as he handed the file to the young man sitting next to him.

The file contained information over a man in his thirties, a circus performer, whom had recently been in Angel Grove General Hospital Critical Care unit in a coma. The report detailed his recent return, in perfect condition with no sign of the illness present. "When the Machine heart was smashed, the soul was let free, and crossed itself back over to it's owner." Ken said.

Matt looked up at the canister with it's dimly glowing light. Ken seemed to sense the other man's concern. He put his hand on Matt's shoulder. "Don't worry. I am going to let him go." He said.

Ken then took up the canister and the printed out files he had gathered around. He checked his watch. "But first I need to go give this presentation to Director Stone. I've got a few things i need to discuss with him and your team anyhow." He said.

He and Matt left the room, Matt helping Ken carry some of the files.

* * *

The heavy reinforced plastic of the isolation cell shook as a tall lanky man slammed his fists against it. He let out a high pitched almost psychotic hyena laugh as he watched the guards of his cell turn their attention towards him briefly.

Oh how he loved tormenting these guys!

"Why don't you come in an show me how much those blasters hurt! Hehee! Pow! POW! Right to the chest. Two shots'll take care of the big bad looney-toon Skull! Heheheh!" He shouted through the thick plastic towards them, motioning towards his chest with his hands as if they were guns.

"There will be plenty of time to get to feel such glorious pain, my doll." A voice said from behind the man.

Skull turned towards the source of the voice, but couldn't see anything. "Where are you?!" He said. His face managing to become paler than it already was in spite of the graying rash on his skin. He slowly approached the bed in the room, quickly getting on his knees and looking under the bed as if he expected someone to be lurking there.

He heard a laugh in his head. Turning around he saw a spectral woman standing behind him. She had the appearance of a doctor, but she was mostly machine.

"Hehe, Hey, Doc, are you here to make me better?!" He asked.

The Machine Doctor laughed. "Of course I am!" She said.

She then approached him, In her hand was a orb of silvery light.

"So what do I have to do?" Skull asked.

"See, you've got a parasite in you-all you need to do is take this nice little pill and it'll take that parasite right out." She said her voice full of false sweetness as she placed the orb in his hands.

He looked down at it for a second, before popping it into his mouth like a breath mint.

The overhanging lights of the cell began to flicker, and Skull heard his own heart beating in his ears. It felt as if a fog had been lifted from his whole being. The silver rash began to recede, but taking all color from his skin as well.

A warm feeling became present in his chest, and he suddenly felt incredibly sick. He doubled over, falling to his knees. Writhing in pain as the tingling fire in his chest began to become more intense and the wave of nausea intensified.

He opened his mouth to vomit, but found his stomach contents did not come out. Instead the silver ball of light came out, only there was more attached to it. As he vomited he found his perspective changed and he could feel himself leave his own body.

A strange sensation to be sure, to be writing in pain in one minute, and suddenly detached from oneself, watching one's own cold, pale body falling to the ground.

He reached out a hand for himself as the guards rushed into the room to check his body. He found he could not move.

The light engulfed him.

* * *

Trips to his grandfather's office to discuss Ranger related business, seemed to have become common place for Liam. Only now at this time he was accompanied by Jasmine and Joey. It had only been a couple of days since they had joined.

As the three of them, stood in the office Liam took notice of the older woman in a yellow dress and a doctor's coat whom was standing just to the right of his grandfather.

In a few seconds the meeting began as Matt and one of the researchers whom Liam saw around the base but didn't know his name entered the room. They were carrying a numerous amount of documents, and the canister they had retrieved from DustGhoul a few days ago.

"Now we're all here we can begin. Everyone, I'd like for you to meet-" Director Stone began.

However Joey was already on his feet with a wide smile on his face. He was looking at the African American woman with a sense of awe as if he were meeting a celebrity. "Dr. Aisha Blaine! Oh my god! I can't believe it! You're really her! You're really here!" He said shaking her hand energetically, much to the older woman's surprise.

"You know her?" Jasmine asked.

Joey rolled his eyes, as if unable to believe impossible no one in the room not to know who Dr. Blaine was. "She's only one of the biggest deals in the medical field." He said.

"I'm surprised you know this." Jasmine said.

Shrugging Joey looked over, "Hey, I'm more than just good looks you know. I've got a bachelor's in Botanical Sciences, with a focus on Medical application. She held a guest lecture at the University I attended back home. She was so inspiring!" He said.

"She also happens to be my mother-in-law." The Native American man said as he approached the woman, giving her a brief embrace.

"Everyone, this is Kenda Kencaid. I'm sure a few of you have seen him around the research facility." Director Stone said.

Kenda held up his hand in a greeting as he looked at the group standing before him. "You can just call me Ken. Most people do."

"Apart from Dr. Blaine's assignment to our research division, Mr. Kencaid is responsible for today's meeting. He's found information in regards to the Pandora Mist and the Virus, which you as Aether Rangers; may need to know." Director Stone said, introducing the man as he took the files from him and began looking through them.

Ken turned towards the group and took a deep breath as he began to explain his findings.

* * *

Tension hung in the air as the pink suited woman stood atop the roof of the small stage of the park Amphitheater. The audience watched with bated breath as the woman was confronted by a group of men and women looking ready for a fight.

She readied herself for an attack. With a sly smile and a nod, she let out a shout as she leapt into the air, knocking the four thugs away with a butterfly twist kick. As she gracefully landed the maneuver she ran towards the edge of the stage's roof. Without even a slight hesitation she leapt from edge of the metal railings and did a front flip through the air as she fell the fifteen feet, onto the thick pile of blue safety mats down below.

The woman got to her feet quickly. More attackers were making their way towards the mat-including the four whom she confronted on the roof. She somersaulted off of the mat, knocking a few of the nearby attackers away, sending them back flipping off of the mat and landing in a crouching position upon the concrete.

The woman battled with the others with impressive martial arts and acrobatics skills. In a matter of moments however she was surrounded, once again.

Three more people came in from the audience, performing flying kicks and knocking back a few of the other people. Together the woman in pink and her comrades fended off the rest of the thugs. The second the last of the group hit the ground, the crowd which had gathered to watch the show erupted into applause, as all the participating actors got to their feet and joined the tattooed woman in pink, bowing to the audience.

As the audience dispersed, the woman turned to the others, "Excellent show everyone! That's all for right now. Rest up, practice and be back here tonight for the next show!" She said.

Looking around she checked her phone, before grabbing up a pink towel and a matching water bottle which was sitting on a bench near by. She took a drink of the water and toweled the sheen of sweat from her face.

* * *

The Aether Temple was peaceful as Tenshii sat in meditation on the calm ethereal waters of the reflecting pond.

Though Tenshii found himself barely capable of keeping focus. There was a certain anxiety he could feel from within the light of the Aether itself. He could feel it's excitement in his own being. Looking towards the Eidolons, and their impatient pacing, it seemed as if they could feel it themselves.

Lathi flew down to him, perching on his shoulder and rubbing his head against the man's temple, as if he were trying to comfort the man.

Shaking his head Tenshii scratched the Phoenix's neck, making the bird let out a harmonic noise. "I'm okay, it's just a little empathy from Liam. He's received quite a shock learning the true nature of the Wisps." He said.

He then got to his feet and looked towards the colored lights dancing along the edges of the water. The Pink and Yellow lights seemed to be glowing with a more furious light than any of the other lights. The Scorpion and the Bear Eidolons were standing in front of the lights, waiting patiently as if they were watching and waiting for someone.

"Eksendreya and Callistus are doing what Nabu and Menodora were doing the other day, before Jasmine and Joey showed up. Two more Zenith Crystals must be close." Tenshii said as he watched the two creatures.

* * *

"What do we do now? Our enemies are human beings. We're dealing with lives of our fellow humans here!" Joey said as he looked over at his teammates. He felt a knot of anxiety in his stomach which refused to loosen. It made him ill thinking about the fact Galexia was using human souls and warping them to power the CyberShades.

Jasmine crossed her arms and looked over at her comrades. "We have no choice. We still fight them. This information changes nothing in our approach." She said.

Liam looked over. He could see Joey was visibly shaken by the information. He understood how the man must have felt. After all, a number of people whom Liam grew up around had fallen ill to the Pandora Mist. Knowing there was a chance the Metalliwisp attacking, or the Cybershade whom appeared to terrorize was potentially powered by a former loved one, friend, or family. It was enough to make one have cold feet and reconsider everything.

"Though it sounds cold-hearted to say. I agree with Jasmine." He said.

Joey looked down at the Crystallizers on his arms. He knew they were right. As a Ranger, he couldn't chose who his enemies were. Human or not, he and the other Rangers were the only ones capable of helping those people.

Dr. Blaine stepped forward and put her hand on Joey's shoulder. "You're a Ranger Joey. There will be a lot of difficult decisions which will be presented to you, and it's in those moments when the support of your friends and following what you believe to be right is important. As long as you know they believe in you, and you believe in them, you'll be doing the right thing, no matter what decision you make." She said.

A small smile came across her face as she looked around at the others in the room.

However this moment was short lived as someone cam rushing into the room.

"Director Stone!" the Agent called out.

"What is it?" Director Stone asked getting up from his seat.

"It's Agent Skullovitch-"The Agent said.

"Eugene?" Julia said under her breath. Her voice caught in her throat. She became unusually pale. Pushing past the group she led the group out of the room, practically running down the hallway towards the quarantine cells.

* * *

Angel Grove General's Intensive Care Unit. A place the pink haired African-American woman had come to know all too well these last few months. She had become familiar with it's white stone and plaster walls, it's shining white and blue tiled floors. Most irritating of all, she had become familiar with it's multitude of evenly spaced glaringly bright white fluorescent lights which reflected off the tiled floors like light over water.

She spent plenty of time in research labs and animal hospitals growing up, due to both her parents being veterinarians and medical science researchers. However, there was something different about actually being in a hospital. There was something far more unsettling.

She scoffed as she looked down at the young girl, her daughter, laying unconscious in the bed next to her. Maybe hospitals felt unsettling, because she had seen one too many horror movies. Hospitals in horror movies were always bad. Hell, Hospitals were rarely a good setting in any movie.

"Hello, Lisa. We haven't seen you here in the last couple of days. How are you?" One of the nurses said as he entered into the room where the woman sat.

Lisa looked up from the body of the young dark skinned girl whom lay in the bed. She gave a warm though half hearted smile to the nurse as she stepped aside to let him check the child's vitals.

"How's Najera been doing?" She asked the nurse.

The Nurse looked down at the blood pressure monitor. "No better, but no worse. Her vitals are still reading normal. Average temperature, Normal heart rate. It's like her heart and brain are operating to keep her alive." He said.

Looking down Lisa sighed and ran her hand over her daughter's forehead, brushing away some of the curls of the little girl's hair. That's exactly what's going on. She thought.

The nurse shook his head taking note of the balloons and the stuffed animal which sat around the room. A small twinge of sadness went through his heart as he looked at the pair. It was the little girl's birthday.

Lisa sighed as the door closed leaving her alone with her daughter. Gently she grabbed the little girl's hand, holding it in her own. She gave the small hand a kiss on the knuckles before laying it back down at her side.

* * *

Liam braced himself the minute they reached the cell. He found Julia kneeling beside her husband's comatose body. Tears streaming from down her eyes as she tried to get her husband to wake.

"He talked to himself before this happened. It seemed as if he were seeing some sort of hallucination. He thought he was talking to a doctor. Next thing we knew he started acting like he was sick, and then this happened." One of the guards explained.

Ken crossed his arms, "Interesting." He said.

All eyes turned towards him, wondering what the dark haired man could possibly find so interesting about something this terrible.

Looking up at the people around him he put his hands on his hip and shook his head. "My daughter Najera, right before she lapsed into the comatose stage. She had a hallucination of a doctor too." He explained.

Joey approached Julia and put his hand on her shoulder. He didn't know what to say to the woman. He'd only known her for a few days.

"It'll be okay-" He stammered out. He had never been great about comforting people in the first place. Julia didn't respond to him as she continued sobbing over her husband's body.

He attempted again, though fumbling for the words. "I-I'm-" he began.

Jasmine looked at him sternly. "Joey, Enough. Give her space." She said, though her voice sounded more cold than she intended it to.

Joey exchanged a look with Jasmine, silently, wordlessly, telling her she was being too cold-hearted for his tastes in light of tragedy.

Letting out a loud sniff, Julia rubbed her eyes and shook her head as she got back on her feet. She straightened out the skirt of her navy blue suit and adjusted her glasses. She looked at the Rangers sternly.

"If-If what Dr. Kencaid has told us is true. Then You'll be fighting Eugene sooner or later. Either as a Metalliwisp or a Cybershade. Depending on what Galexia wants to use him for. When you do, I know you won't recognize him. He won't recognize you. So-just...don't hesitate. Take him out quick and with all you've got. Even if it kills him." She said.

Joey stepped forward, his eyes wide with shock. "What?!"

Julia looked down at her wedding ring, spinning it around on her finger for a second before looking over at her husband's body and then to the Rangers. "Eugene would have wanted it this way." She said.

Director Stone stepped forward, putting his hand comfortingly on Julia's shoulder, before looking to the others. "You know the nature of your opponent, though not all his motivations are clear. The most important task you have at hand right now is to seek out the other Aether Rangers before King Aradon finds them. If what you say about the nature of Aradon is true and the Demon Briezora has connection to your powers then he'll undoubtedly want to seek out those who hold the remaining pieces of the crystal in order to destroy them, if not make them into his own servants of evil." He said.

Crossing her arms Jasmine looked over, "I wonder if he's not already using humans as his servants to carry out such a task?" She said.

"You mean those two motor freaks? Ninja Girl and Inferno Fist? I doubt it? I doubt King Aradon-or even Briezora would employ people who fight against their own army. I think we might be safe to assume, those two, while probably on the same mission have nothing to do with Aradon." Joey said crossing his arms.

"Besides," he added, "We don't even know if they're actually human anyway."

Jasmine nodded. "You're probably right."

Liam crossed his arms and looked down. "Finding the other Aether Rangers is easier said than done though. We were lucky enough to find Jasmine and Joey, because they were already on their way here. I sort of doubt we're going to have a strike of luck like it again." He said.

"Yeah. But it does put us at an advantage too. If we don't know who they are, and they don't know who they are-then likely Aradon's not going to know where to start looking." Joey said with a smile on his face.

Shaking her head Jasmine put her hands on her hips. "That's the problem though. How do we know Aradon doesn't know? If you're forgetting, he directly attacked us before we became Rangers. He knew we had the crystals. He was trying to stop us." She said.

Joey bit his lip and shook his head. "Right. Good point."

"We don't even know how many Rangers we're looking for here in the first place." Jasmine said.

"My best bet is to assume at least Eight." Liam said.

"Eight-what makes you say that?" Jasmine asked.

The seventeen year old took out a piece of paper and began drawing on it. He drew a tear shaped image, and began sketching other triangles branching off of it, until the image became an eight pointed star.

"Well, First there's our numbering. I'm Guardian Zero, and Joey is Ranger Seven, You're Ranger Two." He said.

"My crystal is a little different from both of yours in shape and size, but using it as an anchor point as it contains the center of the object it also makes up the Northern point of the star. Both of your crystal fragments are exactly the same measurements, and of triangular shape-with rounded curve opposite of the point. Using the design and measurements, I noticed they happen to line up perfectly with the bottom curve of my Crystal. If the Crystals all were part of one crystal, with mine being the center point, then the other fragments should measure the same width along the bottom curve. Fitting them along my crystal should result in the star pattern." Liam explained.

Joey looked at the star for a moment. "Stands to reason. I mean we've got that pattern on our weapons, and on our belts. Guess it's just the complete Zenith Crystal Design." He said.

Nodding Jasmine looked down at the drawing. "Well, We're already active Rangers, so that's three out of Eight Rangers. We're just looking for the other five." She said.

Frowning Liam folded up the image after making a few notes on it. "Unfortunately finding them is going to be like trying to find out the identities of Zordon's Rangers. Somehow, the bad guy knows, but we're in the dark about it." He said.

* * *

Canisters of souls lined the walls of Galexia's workshop. They glimmered with their multicolored lights. Karmelody admired their gleaming light as she browsed through the shelves, waiting for Galexia to appear.

She reached for two Canisters next to each other. Scanning them briefly with her bionic eyes she took a step back and sighed. One of these was fresher than the other, though it contained an older soul. "Fifty, or fifty one year old human male. Freshly extracted." She muttered as she examined the canister.

She then looked at the other canister. This one had a strong glow to it. "Oh, wow. You're just a little girl aren't you? You must be so scared! I know how you feel. It's pretty scary when you don't know where your family is, and you don't know where you are." She said.

She heard the clunk of heavy metal feet upon the stone floor of the palace, causing her to jump and turn towards the source of the sound.

"Oh General Galexia. Is the new Cybershade ready, already?" She asked looking up at the doctor robot, whom was being followed by a slightly freaky looking robot covered in different looking mouth like fixtures. The largest of the mouths-where the monsters actual mouth should have been, was dripping with green battery acid.

"Yes. This is Toximouth. I've gotten a lead on the energy patterns of two more of the Zenith Aether Crystal Fragments."

"Oh. If that's the case, maybe I should go with him, as backup?" Karmelody asked clasping her hands together.

The larger female robot laughed as if the idea of Karmelody participating in a fight, or even being down on Earth in the first place was the most absurd thing she had ever heard.

"You are in line for the throne of the Machine Empire. A Princess shouldn't have to dirty her hands mingling with humans. You would be much better off staying here." A voice said from behind them.

Karmelody sighed and crossed her arms; disappointed she wasn't allowed to go down to Earth. She wanted a chance to get to see the place her father was trying to conquer.

"Besides, Toximouth is more than capable of handling these two rangers on his own, and I'd hate for you to accidentally get yourself hurt by his venom." Galexia said.

Galexia looked over at the soul canisters next to her, and gently picked up the brightly glowing one. She then placed it into Toximouth's hands. "I've given you the coordinates for the Pink Aether Ranger; If you take this with you, and do as I have explained to you; you may not even have to fight her."

The larger machine man looked at the small canister in his arms, examining it. "Pink'll want to be seeing her darling little daughter huh?"

Galexia laughed and crossed her arms. "Once you convince Pink to give up her soul for her daughter-Yellow will undoubtedly crumble. He'll be willing to make a bargain with you. You know what to offer." She said.

Toximouth laughed and put his hand on his hip, while cradling the canister under his other arm like a basketball. "Yeah. Hand over the Crystals; if he wants them back." He said.

The two laughed as they left the room. Leaving Karmelody standing in the room by herself. She clenched her fist before her chest and looked down for a second, She turned and looked at the other canister of the freshly extracted soul.

"Hmm. Bargaining huh? General Acedia is not going to like hearing you're having monsters using his tactics. Galexia." She said.

* * *

Angel Grove Park, was peaceful for the time being. The afternoon sun beamed down from a cloudless sky and filtered through the trees with People were lazing around the grassy expanses. A few had gathered at the amphitheater to watch the afternoon stunt show being set up.

However, the pink haired stunt director was on edge, as she leaned up against the bench behind the stage she shook her head.

It wasn't just because of the performance which was still a few hours off.

"Everything okay, Lisa?" One of the crew asked as he noticed her clutching the necklace around her neck tightly and looking towards the sky.

Lisa feigned a smile and looked over. "Yeah, I'll be fine in time for tonight's performance. Nerves you know." She said.

The crewman nodded, "I Know what you mean. crowd's really gathering out there. If even half of them stick around, It'll probably be the biggest crowd the Flying Angels have ever had." He said before walking away to go and check something further down stage.

Lisa looked down and closed her eyes.

The sound of the park became clear, and through her closed eyes she was sure she saw a flash of Silvery light. The chattering in the park had become an uproar or terror as the audience began rushing as far away from the scene.

Opening her eyes, Lisa gracefully dodged out of the way of a Metalliwisps' attack. Grabbing the creature by the spikey arm as she spun around to keep it from hitting her square in the back. With a roar she flung the creature away from her, but not before using it to keep herself balanced as she bicycle kicked another Metalliwisp approaching her.

For several seconds Lisa defended off the Metalliwisps on her own, checking to make sure all of her crew was okay. Most of them were helping evacuate the audience while making use of their stunt training to fend off the creatures to help people escape.

Good. Lisa thought, at least I won't have to worry about innocent bystanders when this all goes down.

Another brief flash of silver occurred, and Lisa saw a terrifying, ugly robot making it's way out of the mist and approaching her. "As expected." She muttered as she prepared herself to fight.

The monster covered in mouths and metal decided to antagonize the escaping crowd, by spitting green liquid from it's main mouth, before turning it's attention to Lisa. Some of the liquid hit the equipment near by, causing it to hiss with an terrible noise as it began to steam and melt away.

"Hehe. Hello there Aether Ranger!" Toximouth said as he approached Lisa. His arms were behind his back, holding the canister just out of sight.

Lisa clenched her fist, readying herself to strike. "I'm sorry, do we know each other? Think I'd remember someone as dumb looking as you." She said.

"I'm Toximouth, and that's hardly any way to address me. I wouldn't be saying such mean things. You wouldn't want your dear little daughter to pick up a bad habit now would you?" he said as he pulled the canister from behind his back, pushing a button on top of it.

The image of a young girl with wide brown eyes, projected between the two of them, Lisa took a step back. The image of her daughter. "Najera!" She gasped.

Looking to Toximouth she clenched her fist. So this was the game the Cybershade was going to play? Taunt her with the soul of her daughter?

"Give her back you freak!" Lisa shouted.

Toximouth laughed. "See, I don't think so Pink. But I'm a reasonable robot. Now, i can tell how much you care for this little girl-so I'm willing to make a deal with you." He said.

Lisa stumbled back in defense as the monster came closer. "What kind of deal?" She asked.

With an almost sinister laugh, Toximouth ran his hand over the canister. He reached out for the pink haired woman and motioned his hand as if he wanted something from her. Wiggling his fingers, and beckoning something be placed in his palm. "Simple enough. I want the Zenith Aether Crystal Fragment you're wearing around your neck. Y'know one sparkly gem for another." He said.

Looking down briefly, Lisa reached for the necklace around her neck.

"Yes, that's the one. See, i don't know if you realize it, but it's a rather special stone." Toximouth said. His other mouths laughing.

She already knew this though. She had been in possession of this crystal, for the last six years, ever since before her daughter had been born. She already met the spirit within in it. She already knew what would happen if she gave it up. Yet, still: this was her daughter's soul they were talking about.

Toximouth held his hand out towards Lisa, wiggling his fingers as if he were anticipating her placing the crystal into his hand.

Swallowing the lump which had formed in her throat, Lisa slowly made her way towards him. She placed the crystal into the monster's outstretched hand.

Toximouth's many mouths began to bellow with laughter as the pink tinted crystal placed into his hands.

"N-Now give me back my daughter!" Lisa said.

Looking down at the crystal in his hand, and then to the canister cradled into his arm, his eyes flashed. As he turned to the side, placing the canister defensively outside of the reach of Lisa. The laughter soon became sinister.

"General Galexia was right! The things the humans call compassion and familial bonds are indeed an easily exploited." Toximouth said with a laugh.

Lisa's eyes became wide with horror as she watched the monster's metallic fingers wrap around the crystal breaking it into dust, letting the particles slip beneath his fingers. Lisa doubled over as she grasped her chest and falling to the ground.

* * *

From atop the stage the Black and Red Riders watched the scene. The Red Rider stepped forward, in a concerned rush as he saw the pink crystal's dust. His companion put her hand on his shoulder, silently shaking her head.

The Red Rider gave a half annoyed grunt as he turned his attention back towards the scene below him. Toximouth was laughing triumphantly as he approached the body of the fallen woman.

He sent down a blast of fire from his fists towards the Cybershade, before he and his companion leapt from the top of the stage, landing on the safety mats placed there for the performance later.

The Cybershade reacted in surprise as two new battlers entered onto the scene, landing defensively in front of the fallen woman.

"Haha. You two are pretty dumb if you think you're gonna save her. She had a Aether Crystal. Y'know those things bond to souls right? Crush it, crush the soul. She's already dead."

"I'm aware of the lore of the Zenith Aether Crystal. It's too bad you're more mouth than eyes-otherwise you would have been able to tell right away where you messed up." The Black Rider said to Toximouth as she drew out her swords.

Toximouth growled as the two whom stood in his way of the Pink Ranger. He spit acid from his chest towards the two and blocked by the broadside of the Black Rider's Blade as she rushed towards him.

The Cybershade dodged out of the way of the oncoming attacks of the two as he made his way towards the Pink Ranger. As he passed by the two, they were quickly overtaken by a new swarm of Metalliwisps.

* * *

Director Stone nodded as he hung up his phone. He looked over at the other Rangers. Jasmine, Liam, and the McKenzie family all stood at attention in a military fashion, while Joey stood with his arms crossed. All of them were awaiting the news.

"Rangers, I have just received a communication from an undercover agent of a Cybershade attacking at the amphitheater in Angel Grove Park. The Cybershade calls itself Toximouth. It appears to be targeting a single individual." Director Stone explained.

"That seems odd for the CyberShade to attacking one person. Is she a Ranger?" Jasmine asked.

"More like, was-reports confirm she handed a crystal matching the description of your Zenith Crystals, to Toximouth in exchange for an object he was carrying. The Crystal crushed upon contact." Director Stone said, his voice becoming morose as he spoke. Giving one glance over to the comatose man on the bed, and his weeping wife.

Dr. Blaine let out a gasp, holding her hands to her mouth, trying to hold back tears. "Lisa! No!" She whispered out.

"Come on Rangers. We've got to get out there." Liam said as he readied his Crystallizer and looked over at the group. The trio headed for the door, ready to leap into action.

As they reached the door, they were stopped by Ken's voice demanding they stop. They looked towards the Native American man, making contact with his stern dark brown eyes.

"I'm going too. Not just because Lisa is my wife and Doctor Blaine's daughter, and they've got my daughter's soul, but also because-"

He reached into the collar of his shirt, and withdrew two crystal amulets, adorned to look like arrowheads. One held a Pink Crystal and the other held a Yellow crystal.

"-but because We were destined to join this fight." He said.

Ken nodded as he revealed two devices upon his wrists, exactly of the same build and design as the Crystallizers upon the other three Ranger's arms. A wide, confident smile appeared on his face.

* * *

Toximouth approached the fallen body of the Pink haired woman. He knew he should be getting to his report to Galexia, but he had to make sure this nuisance of a human was dead first. He had expected witnessing an Aether Ranger's soul being ripped from her body, would have been more impressive.

Lisa felt nervous as she felt the presence of the disgusting Multi-mouthed creature coming closer to her. In a few seconds she felt his cold metal foot dig into the ground underneath her, pushing her over onto her back. She tried to keep herself as still and as lifeless as possible.

Toximouth leaned over her, curiously examining her for any signs of breathing. Unfortunately he had not been equipped with any life reading scanners, so he had to resort to the tedium of checking by regular vision.

"Oh, That's it Pink? I crush the very crystal your soul has been tied to; and all you do is just collapse?" He asked as he leered down at the faux unconscious Pink Ranger. He placed the canister of the little girl's soul at her side, as he prepared to attack.

He readied his arm, the tongue of the mouth attached to the end of his arm turned into a venomous spike, which smoked with the Silvery Pandora Mist. He raised his arm, ready to strike her right in the chest.

"Lisa! Catch!" A voice called from near by, catching Toximouth off guard, giving the pink haired African-American enough time to spring to her feet. She landed a roundhouse kick to the CyberShade's chest, knocking him back. She scooped up the canister as she did a one handed back handspring.

She reached up into the air catching the Pink Crystal just by the tips of her fingers. She looked over towards the group whom was running towards her.

A small group of Agents were currently engaging the Metalliwisps, while three Ranger suited warriors were already on their way towards her being followed by her husband. As Ken approached her, he briefly embraced her. She looked up at him, seeing the worry which was ringing clear in his eyes.

"That was way too close. but I got Najera's soul. You were right Ken. They knew who we were, but they couldn't detect the difference between the decoy Zenith Crystal and the real one." Lisa said as she handed Ken the glowing canister. The two of them held the metal and glass cylinder between them for a second.

Ken then took the object and turned towards Matt. He placed it in his hands. "Matt. I want you to take this to Angel Grove General, ICU, Room 7. I want you to take this to her, and open it. If the doctor's try to stop you, I want you to call the base, and have them speak with my mother in-law, Dr. Blaine. If she wakes up before we get back, stay with her." He explained.

"I'll cover you, get going!" Amber said as she grabbed Matt's hand and pushed him along through the Metalliwisps. She began laying down a barrage of cover fire on the Metalliwisps to help her boyfriend get through the horde of foot soldiers.

Once Matt had gotten away from the scene, Ken turned to his wife as he handed her the Pink tinted Crystal. The two of them exchanged a nod as they took the crystals out of the design, and slipped them into the empty chamber of the Crystallizer. The Crystals responded by emitting a bright glow.

Ken and Lisa held each other's hand for a brief second, before nodding at each other.

"You ready?" Lisa asked.

"Ready as I'll ever be." Ken said with a confident smile as he looked down at his wife.

"Then let's go!" Lisa said. A wild gleam was in her eye as the two of them turned towards Toximouth.

"Crystallize Soul!" They both shouted in unison.

They went through the same motions of the morphing call, linking the Crystallizer devices, holding their crossed wrists above their heads, and then over their hearts, and then pushing them outward as a light similar to the color of their respective colors emitted from the chamber and surrounded their bodies.

When the light cleared both Lisa and Ken were decked out in Ranger gear similar to Liam and the others. Lisa in Pink, her outfit similar to Jasmine's with the skirt. Ken was in Yellow.

"What is this?!" Toximouth said as he saw the two new Ranger suited warriors.

"This? This is what happens when you play with human souls in your sick and twisted game!" Ken shouted. He then moved mimicking the motions of a bear standing on it's hind legs ready to strike, "With the critical intellect of the Bear, Aether Ranger Three: Yellow!"

"This is what happens when you underestimate the strength of a human soul, and the bonds of family!" Lisa shouted, following her husband's lead, only crouching into a position reminiscent of a scorpion ready to strike it's prey. "With the stinging ferocity of the Scorpion; Aether Ranger Six: Pink!"

"Together we are members of the Zenith Elysian Order, sworn protectors of the Aether and the Elysian Light Realm!" They shouted in unison. The two Rangers gave a nod towards each other before charging at the Cybershade.

The two rangers battled against Toximouth together for several minutes; Lisa landing graceful yet precise and rapid kick and punches upon the many mouthed creature. Ken, on the other hand, took more of a brutal approach, grappling with Toximouth, wrestling with the creature to keep it immobile while Lisa landed her hits.

Toximouth growled as his many mouths latched down on the Lisa's fist and on Ken's side. He gave one mighty shake and flung the two of them from him, sending them crashing into the bleachers lining the amphitheater pit.

Liam, Jasmine, and Joey rushed over towards the two new Rangers and helped them get back to their feet.

"You alright?" Joey asked as he helped Ken to his feet.

"He didn't hit my heart so I'm good. I won't be infected by the Mist. His bites didn't even break my suit." Ken said as he got to his feet, dusting himself off.

"Well, we've got to get that chest plate off of him. in order to get access to the machine heart." Jasmine said as she brandished her ax weapons.

"Easier said than done." Joey commented as he looked over towards Toximouth whom was getting to his feet. The disgusting creature was now leaking acidic goo from all of his mouths like drool. The acidic mixture hitting the ground, causing it to burn and leaving the stone partially dissolved.

Toximouth rushed at the Rangers, spewing streams of the light green acid from his mouth. The blasts caused the five rangers to scatter. Liam and Jasmine were both hit by the acid, and knocked to the ground, their suits smoking as the acid tried to eat away at the material.

" _Come on Liam, You've got to get up_!" Tenshii shouted, his voice echoing in Liam's head. Liam tried to get to his feet, but found it impossible due to the searing white-hot heat currently eating away at his body.

* * *

Breath filled the young girl's lungs as she awoke to the sounds of a heart monitor.

Beep, Beep, Beep. a nice steady rhythmic pace in time with her heart.

Opening her eyes she found herself in a hospital room, the news on the television was playing a special report about the attack going on in the park.

" _I'm sorry we can't allow you to go any further. This is a restricted area_ -" A man in a black suit with sunglasses was saying to reporters whom were trying to get past him to see the disturbance.

" _What information can you give us about the situation at the park amphitheater? Is this incident related to the attacks which occurred down town a few weeks ago_?" One of the reporters asked shoving the microphone under the Agent's nose.

The Agent looked displeased with the microphone being intrusive of his personal space and moved it away. " _We are currently working on evacuation efforts and cleaning up the area._ " He said.

Najera clapped her hands as she watched the television. She could see the footage from a video feed a reporter was taking. She saw the Pink Ranger grappling with the poly mouthed creature, wrapping him up with the chained daggers she launched from bracers which had appeared on her wrists.

"Go Mommy!" She said.

Her cheer caught Matt's attention and he turned his attention to the girl who was sitting up in the bed. He was surprised the little girl recognized her own mother as a battling Ranger.

The footage then showed Yellow Ranger brandishing a shield and using it as a weapon against a group of Metalliwisps whom surrounded him, before striking at Toximouth. To the sight of this Najera cheered and clapped her hands together, and shouted in surprise when the footage cut off because of an Alliance agent's interference trying to restrict the area.

Matt laughed. He enjoyed seeing the little girl watching the footage of her parents decked out in Ranger gear and fighting against monsters alongside other suited warriors, like some Saturday morning cartoon. It reminded him when he was a young kid, probably a year younger than her back in Reefside. All the reports of the Power Rangers saving the day. It made him want to become a superhero when he grew up.

It made him feel like a kid again, just to see someone so young, so excited about getting to see the Power Rangers in action. Even if these Rangers were being assisted by secret agents.

* * *

Toximouth bit down on the shield of the Yellow Ranger, with it's larger mouth, unable to knock it away with his arms being in a bind by the pink energy chains wrapped around his body.

"Orange, Violet. While, We have him distracted, use your weapons to hit him. Pry this sucker open like a can of tuna!" Lisa called out to the two Rangers whom weren't currently on the ground squirming in pain from Toximouth's acid.

Jasmine and Joey looked at each other for a second, before looking to Liam, wondering if they should tend to him first.

"Don't worry about me! I can take care of myself." Liam said as he slowly got to his feet, using the edge of the stage's platform to allow him to keep his balance. His suit slightly burnt.

Nodding to Liam and then to each other, Jasmine and Joey leapt at Toximouth, brandishing their weapons.

The Orange Ranger's twin axes struck the metal plate, leaving a two large gashes along the metal plating. "All yours Joe!" She said as she ducked out of the way to give room for the Violet Ranger.

With his fan weapon closed, the Violet Ranger jammed the weapon into the pieces of metal between the two gashes with enough force to make the metal break from it's cut edges. He unfolded the fan in the gap, widening it, and ripping it off of Toximouth with a quick pull.

Toximouth let out a howl of pain and began to violently flail around, managing to knock the Rangers away from him.

"That HURT!" He growled, grabbing a hold of both Jasmine and Joey in his arms. The mouths on the ends of his arms caught them around their necks as he held them both off the ground. Neither of the two rangers he held were able to speak.

Lisa and Ken leapt to their feet, charging up their power.

" _They're going to use the Bear and Scorpion to do the Eidolon Strike, Ground Formation_!" Tenshii said.

"No! We can't risk hurting Jasmine and Joey! Don't use the Eidolons yet!" Liam said as he rushed up to the Pink and Yellow Ranger.

Lisa turned towards Liam, "What are you talking about?! If we don't strike now, they're going to get hurt a lot worse!" She said.

Almost as if responding to Liam's worry about his friend's well being, He saw a bright flash of light dash past his shoulder. He saw the spectral images of the butterfly and the Peacock came soaring in from either side of Toximouth, hitting him with enough force to loosen his grip on the two Rangers.

"Lisa, Ken, I say knock this guy off his feet!" Jasmine said as she and Joey lined up on either side of Ken and Lisa, with Liam in between them.

"Right! Sounds good to me!" The Pink and Yellow Ranger said as they summoned up their Eidolons.

"Eidolon Ground Strike!" they called out in unison, slamming their fists into the ground as beam of light appeared, and the ground began to split apart as the images of a Yellow Bear and a large Scorpion charged at Toximouth. The ground beneath him began to shake and break apart, knocking him off his feet.

"Looks like you could use some help getting back on your feet!" Joey called to the monster. "Let us help you!"

"Eidolon Air Strike!"The Purple and Orange Ranger called out as the Butterfly and Peacock swooped past the two Rangers, and began circling around Toximouth, creating a tornado around him lifting him up off his feet and into the air.

"Phoenix Charge!" The White Ranger called out with the Cybershade suspended in the air. The second the glimmering white phoenix appeared and swooped into the tornado, turning into a pure energy beam and shooting directly through Toximouth's exposed chest plate causing the monster to explode, and the glowing canister within to shatter, and the soul within to fly off to find it's proper body.

"Well, looks like we took that guy's breath away!" Joey said as he put his hands on his hips and looked at the pile of discarded metal and wiring which had been Toximouth.

"Not to mention we united with two more Rangers." Liam added crossing his arms as he approached Joey, looking over his shoulder to where Ken was admiring the Ranger suit he was wearing, hardly able to conceive the idea of what they had actually been capable of doing, while Lisa and Jasmine were introducing themselves to one another.

_"-and freed another soul."_ Tenshii said in Liam's mind. Liam nodded to himself as he looked at the smouldering wreckage.

Not too far away, the Red and Black Rider were making their retreat unseen by any of the Rangers or the Agents present.

* * *

The Rangers were met with the clapping and cheering from a young girl whom was rushing past several of the agents who were cleaning up the area. The young girl launched herself into Lisa's arms.

"Najera!" Lisa called out as she swept the little girl up in her arms.

"Mommy! Daddy! I woke up in the hospital, Mr. Gray said he was a friend of yours, daddy, and that you told him to go to the hospital incase I woke up! Oh! I saw the news footage! You two were soooo cool! I especially liked when mommy wrapped the mouthy monster guy up with her chain bracelets, and Daddy came flying in swinging that shield around like a Frisbee, like thwack! It was so awesome!" the young child said her voice rising the more and more excited she became describing the fight she had seen.

"Naje, what are you doing here? Who checked you out of the hospital?" Ken asked as he looked at his daughter.

Dr. Blaine approached the group, followed by Director Stone. "I did. I thought it would be best not to have a large crowd showing up at the hospital." She explained.

She then smiled as she looked at her daughter and son-in-law. "Besides, it's Najera's birthday, and this is the first birthday she's had which I've been stateside in order to celebrate with her. I figured she could use some fresh air. Maybe let her Grandma take her shopping, and catch a show in the park a little later."

Lisa smiled as she looked at her mother, "Sounds like a good plan to me. I'd join you, but I've got to round up my crew and try to get everything reset for tonight. After Toximouth and the Metalliwisps little performance-It's gonna take a lot of work to get things back in order in time for the performance." She said.

Najera lept down from her mom's arms and immediately went to her grandmother's side grabbing the older woman's hand. "That's okay mommy! Daddy can come with us! Then all four of us can celebrate after the show tonight!" She said.

Ken looked down at his daughter for a brief second, with a slight hint of concern on his face. He then looked towards Director Stone, before looking back down at his daughter again. He knew he was still on duty, and there was still work to be done in the research department. Information on the recovering patient the soul of the Cybershade belonged to.

With a shrug, Director Stone leaned on his walking cane, "Go ahead, Kencaid. Spend some time with your family. It is your daughter's birthday after all. I've got plenty of other researchers on hand to cover for you." He said.

Nodding, Ken gave his wife a brief hug and kiss on the cheek as he joined his mother-in-law and daughter.

Dr. Blaine looked over at the group of Agents and unmorphed Rangers around them. "You guys are welcome to join us if you want!" She said.

Alice smiled slightly and shook her head, "Maybe some other time Dr. Blaine. After the whole incident today, I think I should go and see how Julia is doing." She said.

"I think We'll stick around and help Mrs. Kencaid get set up for the performance tonight. Hate to admit it, but I think we're a little bit responsible for the destruction, the least we could do would be to help her out." Amber said as she looked over at Matt and Micah, the two of them nodded in agreement.

With a shrug Jasmine looked over at Joey and Liam. "I'm up for it. After fighting Toximouth, I think a couple of cavity inducing ice-cream cones at the mall are just what i need. What do you guys say? My treat?" She asked.

Joey smiled and pumped his fist in the air, "Make it a frozen strawberry yogurt topped with whipped cream and real strawberries and I'm there!" He said as he followed the group down the path.

* * *

The dull clink of glasses and bottles being stored away filled the air. The familiar sounds of a business cleaning up after busy opening hours. The owner of the bar, a young woman with steel grey eyes, inhaled deeply as she ran a wet rag across the smooth glassy stone counter top of the bar. The delightful clean smell of bleach and disinfectant cleaners replaced the smells of spilt soda, alcohol, and remnants of the Korean Barbeque sauce from the night's special.

The eleven o'clock news broadcast was rebroadcasting the story of the attack on Angel Grove Park, and the Power Rangers.

The bar owner's ears twitched as she heard the sound of someone entering in to the room. She flinched as she suddenly became highly aware of the smell of warm leather and a woodsy and spicy cologne , and a light licorice scent in the air, mixed with the scent was the faint scent of motor fumes. The smell almost made her nose itch.

"I'm sorry we're closed." She said turning her attention to the two people whom entered into the room.

"Yes. I am aware." One of the people, a woman in black motorcycle gear, said as she withdrew the blades from the sheaths.

The Red Rider looked over at his companion, and then approached the bar owner, grabbing the woman by the wrist and unbuttoning the sleeve cuff of the her dress shirt. He caught a small gun which fell out of the sleeve.

"If you're robbing me you've come at a bad time. I don't keep cash in the register during non business hours, so the till is empty. Another employee of mine took it to another safe for deposit tomorrow. I'm afraid all I've got is some really good alcohol locked up in the back room." The young woman said. She calmly stepped away from the bar, putting her hands up.

The Black Rider looked over at her companion as he returned with the gun placing it on the table near by him, completely out of reach.

"We don't want your money. We're looking for something a little more valuable. Namely a Crystal" She said.

The young woman tilted her head, slowly reaching for her vest pocket. She withdrew a triangular shaped blue crystal attached to a decorative hair-pin. "Then you're after this?" She asked.

"Yes." The Blacker rider said.

Closing her fist around the crystal the young woman dropped her arms, drawing her hands into fists, ready to strike. She shook her head. The faintest hint of a smile appeared on the young woman's face. "You know, you're not the first ones to come after this." She said.

The Red Rider took a step back as he noticed the glasses and displays behind the bar were starting to shake, and the neon and lights behind the bar were flickering wildly.

"It didn't end well for them." The young woman said with a smile daring them to come closer.

The Red Rider held up his hand, catching the gun which he had taken from her, which was now levitating in the air, being moved by unseen forces. He removed the clip from the gun, tossing it aside. His fist ignited, and the surface of the gun began to bubble and melt almost instantly as he squished the gun out of shape, before extinguishing the flames and tossed the gun aside.

The young woman's smile faltered as the acrid of melted gun reached her nose. "Pyro-kinetic huh? That's cool. We'd almost be on fair footing if there were more people here-" She said as she dodged out of the way of the Black Rider's blade as it hit the counter top.

"-or one of you would decide to step out, and I think she knows who she is." She added as she kicked the Black Rider, knocking her into one of the near by tables with a loud crash.

The Red Rider tackled the young woman, the two of them sliding across the bar, and knocking into some glasses, causing them to shatter.

The fight didn't last too much longer between the three before the entrance door opened, and a young asian man stood there staring in disbelief at what he was seeing. "What is going on here?!"

At the sound of the young man's voice the Black Rider looked up from where she was battling against an unseen force coming from the young woman's hand, her blade unable to come down on the young woman's throat. She immediately back away, allowing for the young woman to get to her feet.

The young man rushed over to the young woman, stepping in front of her defensively, ready to attack and continue the battle.

The Red Rider rushed towards the young man, ready to engage him in hand-to-hand combat to obtain the crystal in the girl's possession. However, he was stopped as the Black Rider threw her hand out, blocking his path.

"Stop." She said.

Her companion and the two young adults looked curiously at the sword wielding woman as she put her blades back in the sheaths on her back. She motioned to the Red Rider to follow her. The two of them left the bar together.

With the door closed behind the retreating people, and the danger clearly passed, the young man turned to the young woman and helped her dust the debris and glass from her being. "Are you alright?" He asked.

The young woman nodded. "Yeah. I'm fine. Just have to put in extra work tonight to clean things up." She said as she shook her head, heaving a sigh. "What are you doing here anyways? I thought you went home."

Running his hand over the back of his neck the man shrugged, "Can't get anywhere without my keys. Had to come back for them. Lucky I did, huh?" He asked.

Shrugging the woman dismissed it and continued to dust off the counter top of the bar. A few seconds of silence fell between the two.

"Who were those two? What did they want?" The young man said as he grabbed a broom from near by and began sweeping up the broken glass.

Shaking her head as she put the crystal back into her vest pocket. "Thieves. I wouldn't worry about it though." She said, though her voice carried a wavering hint of breaking confidence.

The Young man looked over towards the door where the two disappeared. He had a bad feeling it wouldn't be the last time those two would show up. Heaving a sigh he shrugged as he continued to clean. He'd have to be on his guard for both their sakes.


	4. The Indigo Empress

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Zenith Rangers are sent out in search of the person who may hold the Blue Aether Crystal. The Rangers go to the Indigo Empress bar and are treated to a two for one deal; Two Aether Rangers in one go! The two new Aether Rangers soon find they have a common history together. Both were involved in accidents in their past caused by one of the Generals: Acedia. Now it looks like Acedia has come to earth looking to collect on some debts he thinks they owe.

Disclaimer; I do not own the rights to Power Rangers

* * *

**Chapter Four: The Indigo Empress**

Silvery mist floated low on the ground. The lights of the overturned vehicle he crawled out of flickered feebly as they tried not to die out completely, bathing the rain pouring down in light. Hard to tell the blood from the mud, the boy thought as he looked down at the scratches and wounds where the glass of the shattered car's windows had cut him.

He could feel his throat producing sounds, but whatever he was saying was not reaching his ears through the roar of temporary deafness from the recent crash. His vision was blurry. He was aware of a bright Green glow coming from somewhere near by him.

The young boy entered a clearing where he saw movement coming from. Through his hazy vision he could see a bright light surrounded by silver lights. He reached his hand out towards two blackish purple lights, which intermingled with the largest of the silver lights. The light faded away into a weak glow, as he rushed towards it. His feet left the ground and he tackled the silver light which destroyed the light. His hands wrapped around whatever was inside the silver light.

Everything became blindingly bright.

* * *

"Mr. Li! Stop!" A woman's voice called out bringing the Asian man back to the present. He became aware of someone's shoulders gripped tightly in his hands. He loosened his grasp as his eyes suddenly focused. He became aware of the bamboo decorated room with it's looping serene music and the smell of aromatherapy oils wafting in the air.

An embarrassed red blush came across his face as he took a step back as he came face to face with an angry glare of an older lady. Her shoulders were bearing some deep red marks. He could practically see the outline of his fingernails having dug into her pale skin.

"Are you trying to kill me?!" The woman shouted.

"I am so sorry!" He said as he ran his fingers through his hair out of nervous habit.

He looked over his shoulder to where a woman in a bright floral bell sleeved shirt and miniskirt was standing with her bracelet laden hands resting on her hips and a serious look on her face. He knew he was in trouble.

The woman, his boss, approached the older woman. As she passed by him, she gave the young Asian a severe look. They'd have words about this incident.

"Lianjie." She said

"Ms. Bloom-I can explain." Lianjie said.

"Oh there's no need for it! I come in and pay for a massage and next thing I know, this boy outright attacks me! What sort of thugs are you hiring here, Faith? I mean if they can't tell the difference between a massage and assault-" The older lady said as she straightened out her hair. and wrapped herself up in the white robe she was wearing.

Ms. Bloom grabbed the first aid kit stored under one of the near by massage tables, and immediately tended to the older woman's wounds.

"Mrs. Lake, I apologize. I got distracted by something and I didn't realize what I was doing. I promise It won't happen again." Lianjie said grabbing a towel and drying his hands off.

Ms. Bloom looked at him and crossed her arms. "Not today it won't. Lianjie, look I don't know what's been going on with you these last few days, but clearly something has been going on and it's affecting your performance. This isn't the first complaint we've had about you this week-granted the it's the first complaint of this kind, but not the first complaint nonetheless." She said.

Looking down Lianjie heaved a sigh and braced himself for the three words he had been expecting to hear from his boss since she walked in the room.

Heaving a sigh Ms. Bloom put her hands on her hips. "Li, look. don't worry about what you've got left this afternoon because I'm taking over your appointments. Take the rest of the afternoon off and I don't know, go for a hike in the woods or go to the beach or go see a therapist, meditate or something. Anything! Just report back to my office tomorrow morning." She said.

With a grimace of disappointment on his face, Lianjie left the room.

* * *

As the door closed behind him, Joey looked around. His teammates were already there, expectantly waiting for him to join them so the briefing on their new mission could begin.

This place was always so weird to him. Even for being involved with the idea of secret organizations and Power Rangers for going on two weeks now, the mere fact this high-tech spaceship type of room even existed seemed too cool to be true.

There were no chairs in the room. Different computer consoles and screens lined the area. Along the back wall there were seven colored tubes. At the other end of the wall there was another tube, only this one of clear glass. Inside of it floated something known as the Zeo Crystal. Like their Zenith Aether Crystals it had been used as a source of Ranger Power years ago.

"Agent Winters good of you to join us." Director Stone said as the group

Joey shrugged. "Sorry I was running late. My Agent wanted to talk to me about a gig tomorrow-unfortunately the guy likes to talk." He said.

With a small nod, Director Stone looked towards Julia whom was making her way around the group handing out folders containing information on their new assignment to each of the Rangers.

"Let's begin." He said.

Dr. Blaine walked over to one of the computer displays and began pushing a few buttons. A holographic display on one of the consoles came to life and began to display a image from a photo ID-similar to the Identification photos of the other members of the United Alliance. The image was of a young woman with dark brown hair and grey eyes.

"This is Erika DeLuca. Former Member of the United Alliance's Stone Canyon Parallel Division." Director Stone began.

Jasmine crossed her arms. "Former? She retired?" She asked looking over at the grey haired director.

"The Stone Canyon base was destroyed over fourteen years ago, following a mysterious incident, which even to this day we've been trying to investigate what exactly happened. We now believe the incident may be in connection with the recent Pandora Virus outbreak." Director Stone began.

Julia crossed her arms and brought up another image, This one of a group of seven suited warriors. She could see the surprise of the Rangers in the room at the sight of another group of Rangers.

"DeLuca and her siblings possessed extraordinary natural extrasensory abilities, and for a brief time were involved in Ranger Activity about thirty years ago." She continued.

"The Esper Rangers-DeLuca's team, were from an alternate Earth Dimension much like the Rangers of the Cornith Dimension, and often fought their adversaries in spaces between dimensions. However in their final battle, in 1998, they were in such a space at the time, and were de powered within the space when their adversary was destroyed. Generally one cannot exist within the space un-morphed, and the Esper Rangers were sent to parts unknown. Erika-the Blue Esper Ranger found her way to this dimension, but was unable to return to her own dimension." Director Stone explained.

Julia continued. "Parallel Division took her in, and helped establish an identity for her in this dimension. However she went MIA after the incident in the Stone Canyon facility fourteen years ago. Most all of Parallel's agents were found dead, with the exception of Agent DeLuca." She said.

"What does this information have to pertain to our assignment?" Jasmine asked putting one of her hands on her hips as she examined the information in the folder she had been given. She'd prefer getting directly to the point. If they were handling a missing persons case and were in charge of finding Erika DeLuca, or uncovering the true events of what went down in the Stone Canyon Facility then she wanted to know right away.

Director Stone nodded, recognizing the Orange Ranger's anticipation to get the job started. "We have been looking for answers as to what exactly happened to Erika DeLuca, and the Parallel facility on the night of November 22, 2014. From our current scans of the facility, we have come across biorhythms matching those of a Zenith Aether Crystal Fragment."

"You believe DeLuca may be one of the Aether Rangers?" Jasmine asked.

"Either that, or the Zenith Crystal fragments might be responsible for the incident, and behind Agent DeLuca's disappearance." Ken said with his arms crossed as he looked over at the young woman wearing orange, before looking back at the computer console.

Director Stone shook his head as Aisha pressed a few more buttons on the console. The image of a young girl, no older than six or seven, was shown in what seemed like research footage. The young girl was being observed from behind glass in a separate room. Erika stood there with a worried look on her face as she watched.

The camera was starting to become static as it turned it's attention towards the young child. The young girl had an aura of blue around her, which played with her dark chocolate brown hair She held her arm out, lifting up a solid heavy concrete block.

The young girl clenched her fist, releasing a blast of blue from her arm, which collided with the solid concrete block. The girl seemed to be struggling with her psychic link to the block. Finally with a roar, she threw her hand up and a fissure appeared in the block.

With a tired sigh, the young girl in blue collapsed to her knees. Erika rushed into the room, immediately coming to the girl's side to comfort her. The camera zoomed in on the pair. A brief glimmer of a blue crystal could be seen on the young girl's hair clip. Though the image was blurry the crystal seemed to glimmer slightly in an unnatural way.

"In our investigation of the Parallel facility we came across evidence of research being conducted regarding Agent DeLuca's powers and the inherited psychic capabilities of her children, being not only of Ranger Lineage, but of parents of different dimensions. We believe Erika DeLuca's daughter, Romi may be in possession of the Blue Zenith Crystal Fragment." Director Stone said.

Micah looked at the footage and shook his head, "Romi? Where have I heard-" He asked under his breath. He bit his lip briefly trying to recall the name before nodding to himself and falling silent to listen to the rest of the briefing.

Liam crossed his arms, "Where do we find her?" He asked.

Julia pushed a few buttons on the console, bringing up a couple of maps of downtown Angel Grove.

"After the destruction of the Parallel facility fourteen years ago, Romi went missing. We've been trying to track her whereabouts for awhile. However we've only had the occasional reading on a flare up in Esper Energy, until a few days ago." She explained.

She zoomed the map in showing street views of a restaurant on a street corner downtown.

"The other night, our scanners detected a flare up of Esper Energy at the Indigo Empress Restaurant."

Amber smiled, "I heard it's really good. They've got like a global cuisine. I mean like everything. Asian, Mexican, Italian, Greek, Middle Eastern, Indian, You name it they probably have a menu for it! Excellent atmosphere, great food, like a perfect date place! I've heard from a lot of the other agents about how great it is." She said, giving her boyfriend a not so subtle hint about future weekend plans.

"Due to the hour of the flare up, we believe Romi works at the Indigo Empress. The restaurant closes around the 11pm, and the flare up occurred shortly after 11:15pm." Julia continued.

"If King Aradon was capable of sending down Metalliwisps and Cybershades to find us, then undoubtedly he'll probably set his eyes on the next holders of the Zenith Aether Crystal. It's probably only a matter of time before he attacks-if he's aware of their identities then he's probably going to start targeting them soon." Jasmine said with her arms crossed.

"So what are we to do?" Lisa asked crossing her arms.

* * *

Lianjie Li walked into the Indigo Empress and sat down at the bar. A few hours had passed since he left work. There was always something so calming about the restaurant. He wasn't sure if the fake green ivy strung around the restaurant, intertwined with dark blue lights, or the midnight blue lanterns strung about and the soft light of the flickering oil lamps at the tables which made him like the place so much.

Maybe he liked it because the food made him nostalgic. Especially the Ginseng Chicken Soup, by far one of his favorite dishes off of the menu.

"You're getting pretty brave lately. Mr. Chicken Soup and Green Tea. Normally you'd take a seat at the back booth, but today here you are directly at the bar-and only a few days after you showed up after the bar closed and ran off those creeps? You know a girl could get the wrong idea about you. " A voice said catching Lianjie's attention. He looked up from the bar-still sporting some deep scratches from the robbery which took place a few days before.

Lianjie smiled as he looked up at the woman in the blue button up shirt and black dress vest standing on the other side of the bar.

"It's not like that. The other night was a coincidence, and I just happen to like the food. I don't know what recipe you use, but it's almost exactly like how my mom used to make it." He said.

The woman laughed. "I appreciate the compliment. Anyway, what brings you in so early?"

"They told me, well rather forced, me to clock out early today." He said.

The woman shrugged before she reached underneath the counter putting a bottle of beer down in front of Lianjie. "Some people just don't appreciate it when you use your nails to give a massage." She said.

Lianjie suppressed a uneasy shiver. He'd heard a number of the waitresses and waiters talking about what they called the border line 'supernatural' aspects of their boss. One would have never been able to tell she was blind, the way she moved around unguided, and her eerie ability to know things about people without them ever having to say a word to them.

" I can see and feel auras, and yours happened to have the remnants of a particularly nervous heat to it, and I could smell the blood under your fingernails. It triggered a psychometric vision. I'm sorry. I-can't really control my psychic senses. It's sort of how I've gotten by without my sight since I was a teenager, I don't even realize I'm doing it some time. " She said a deep blush appearing on her face.

Lianjie reached for his wallet, handing the woman a couple of dollars and some change to pay for the beer. "Don't worry. It's cool." he said.

The woman pushed the money back towards him. He looked up at her in confusion.

"It's on me. Consider it thanks for stepping in the other night. If it weren't for you, those thugs would have trashed the place and I'd be having to pay to renovate the entire lower dining area rather than just replace the counter top, a few glasses and shelves, and a couple tables. " She said.

Lianjie opened the blue glass bottle and took a drink. "I couldn't help it. They probably would have killed you." He said.

The woman crossed her arms and shook her head. "No they wouldn't have killed me. They were after something." She said as she turned and pointed at the blueish triangular shaped crystal hair clip in her auburn hair.

"It looks pretty valuable-no wonder they were after it. " Lianjie said.

Scoffing the woman shook her head. "It's worthless. My mom made it when I was little. I tried to pawn it off once, but the pawnshop owner told me it was complete junk and wasn't worth anything of monetary value." She said.

Lianjie shook his head, "Monetary value no, but maybe it's got some mystical qualities. I mean this is Angel Grove, there's a history of the magical and mysterious around here. My mother told me when she was growing up here, there were like monster attacks almost every week." He said.

The woman shrugged, "Now we've got these Metalliwisp soldiers, and the Pandora Virus plaguing the town more frequently-and Power Rangers. We've got those guys again." She said.

"Maybe the Crystal has something to do with the Power Rangers." Lianjie said offhandedly.

He then laughed as he looked at the woman. "Maybe you're descendant of the Power Rangers-like your mom was one or something-and that's why they're after the crystal."

The woman's face became stern and grave. The look on her face told Lianjie she didn't appreciate the joke. Before Lianjie could ask her about it though, he noticed her blind gaze seemed centered on the entrance. Her hands clenched tightly around the empty shot glass in her hands.

Lianjie looked over his shoulder to notice a group of people walking in and taking a seat at some tables. The woman seemed to be trying to keep her cool as a brown haired woman took the empty seat next to him. The woman was wearing a orange and white stripped long sleeved shirt with a orange skirt made of corduroy type material

"Hello, welcome to the Indigo Empress. I'll be your server today. Is there anything I can get you, a menu perhaps?"She asked, the usually warm tone in her voice she carried when she spoke seemed to have been missing.

The woman shook her head, "I'm looking for someone actually." She said.

"Oh?" The woman in blue asked.

"Yeah. Her name is Romi DeLuca. We believe she may work here." The woman said.

"Why do you want her?" the bartender asked.

The woman raised her eyebrow, but didn't say much. She pulled a picture out of her skirt pocket and placed it on the table between her and the waitress.

Lianjie stole a look at the image from the corner of his eye, pretending he wasn't paying attention. The image was of a young girl and an older woman both wearing bright blue. The young dark haired girl wore the same hair clip which the waitress was currently wearing. Lianjie noticed she looked vaguely similar to the little girl and to the older woman.

"She is blind you know." Lianjie said offhandedly.

The woman in Orange's face flushed a bright red color as she pulled the picture off the table and cleared her throat.

"I'm a missing persons detective, Jasmine White of the Silver Guardians of Silver Hills California. I've been contracted by Romi DeLuca's family to find her. She's been missing since 2014, though we believe she may be working at this bar. She'd be about twenty six years old." Jasmine said.

The waitress crossed her arms.

"You know Miss White. It's not nice to lie. The only people who would have hired you to look for me, would have to be my father. However, I believe if I was really in desperate need to be found by my father, he wouldn't have waited fourteen years. Nor would he have gone all the way to Silver Hills just to enlist the aid of the Silver Guardians. Also, your information is incorrect. I don't just work here. I own here. " She said.

The calm tones of her voice sent an icy chill down Lianjie's spine.

Romi shook her head, "Miss White. What you're after is my mother's Zenith Crystal and it's power." She said.

Jasmine didn't let Romi's tone shake her. "So. You're Romi DeLuca, then?"She asked.

Looking over Romi frowned. "Yes." She said.

Nodding Jasmine casually crossed her arms and leaned on the counter. "Listen Romi. We need help, and we believe you're the only person who can help." She said.

Romi turned her gaze to the counter. "I'm not going back there. Miss White. I'm not going back there so you can just use me for research again." She said darkly. The lights behind her were beginning to flicker slightly. Lianjie could practically feel the warmth of her power radiating off her hands.

Lianjie felt his spine crawl. Was this why it seemed like so many people were after this girl as of late? Had she been apart of some top secret research facility or something, and escaped from it?

He put his hand on the woman in blue's wrist, distracting her attention back to him. He then looked severely at Jasmine, finding she was now accompanied by another individual. This man a lot taller and of a far more muscular build than the two of them. He certainly was a threatening looking man to say the least. Lianjie hoped a fight wasn't going to have to break out.

"The lady says she's not going back. Now, I'm not sure what this is about-or exactly why you're looking for Miss DeLuca. All I know is it has something to do with this crystal." He said to the two, as he motioned to the triangular shaped Crystal in Romi's hair.

He then shook his head, "You're not the first people who have come by looking for this crystal either. A gentleman and a lady were in here just a few days ago wanting the same thing. " He said.

He then let go of Romi's hand, and reached into his jacket pocket pulling out a crystal, only this one was green.

"However, if Miss DeLuca goes with you then I go too." He said, much to the shock of the group.

"You don't know what you're doing." Romi hissed in a low voice to him.

"I've got some questions to ask them about the crystals. Maybe you'd like to know what they know as well. If things get out of hand-well...I'm trained in martial arts, and I know how to utilize pressure points." He said.

Romi bit her lip. Lianjie's aura was exuding a warm confidence. However it carried uneasy underlying vibrations in regards to his own abilities should the need for escape. He wasn't going to let her go alone. He cares enough about me, even though he doesn't know me. She thought.

"Fine. Miss White. I will go with you. However only under one condition. I am not to be separated at any moment while I am in your custody from-uhm-" She began.

Her voice trailed off as it suddenly occurred to her this had actually been one of the few times which she had direct conversation with the young man. Neither of them had exchanged introductions prior to this moment. She'd only seen Lianjie around the Indigo Empress on occasions, enough for to her recognize him by his aura, they had light conversation on the rare occasion, but she didn't know his name. She'd never bothered to ask.

"It's Lianjie. Lianjie Li." He said.

"Yes of course! I will go with you and your comrades Miss White, but only under the condition I am in the constant escort of Mr. Li here." Romi said a stern look on her face as she grabbed Lianjie's arm.

Jasmine looked over at the Native American man at her side. "Seems fair, right Ken?" She asked.

Ken nodded. "Sure. If that's what will make her feel more comfortable."

Jasmine crossed her arms and looked around. "Maybe we can make this discussion a little more private? You say you own this place-so do you have like a back office or somewhere we can go?" She asked.

"Follow me." Romi said with a sigh as she motioned for the group to follow her through the restaurant, towards a door at the other end. The door lead to a set of stairs which led to an apartment above the bar.

* * *

The apartment served as the main office of the restaurant. Decorated in a homely manner, with couches and chairs and curtains. There were signs the loft like apartment was being used as more than a main office. There were blankets folded neatly sitting on one side of the couch; an obvious fold out couch. A small kitchen was just on the other side of the room against the other wall. There was even a bathroom with a shower just behind a door just off to the right of the entrance.

"Welcome to my office-also to my house. About the most private place on the premisses. Restricted even to employees." Romi said motioning to the apartment. She heaved a sigh as she asked the group if there was anything she could offer them.

Jasmine shook her head, "We won't be staying very long."

Before either Lianjie or Romi could react, Ken and Jasmine grabbed the two's arms. In a flash of bright light the four vanished from the apartment office.

* * *

King Aradon sat back in his throne, lazily listening to the sound of Senphonea playing her violin. The sound floated through the air, reverberating off of the metal walls of the room, and putting him at ease.

Briezora liked the sinister music to say the least. King Aradon noted as he took notice of a brief silvery glow in his chest where his heart should have been-if he were human. Breizora always seemed to like any of Senphonea's lower key and slower tempo songs. Which must have been why he instructed her only to play those songs.

The sound of a jaunty up beat flute melody reached his ears, making his sensory circuits ache with displeasure as he heard the noise. Now there, a happy tune, there was a awful sound which he didn't like.

Getting to his feet, he marched through the throne room looking for the source of the noise.

The noise seemed to be coming from his own youngest daughter, Karmelody. She sat perched on the railing of the balcony at the other end of the room, which over looked Earth. A decorative flute pressed to her lips as she looked towards Earth.

"Karmelody! Darling! What is the awful noise you are making." Aradon said.

Looking over at her father, Karmelody instantly stopped. "It's Maidens of Spring. Father. I was just practicing." She said.

Aradon crossed his arms and frowned. "Well, stop it this instant! It's a terrible tune and I cannot bear listening to it's screechy caterwauling for another second! I never want to hear such displeasing music ever again!" He said.

"But-father!" Karmelody began.

"You've heard your father dear-and I agree. It's an awful piece of music." Senphonea said, without even looking up from her violin.

"But you-" She began, however she saw the disapproving looks of her parents.

With a defeated sigh Karmelody got to her feet and put the flute away within a compartment at her hip. She bowed to both her mother and father respectfully. "Very well then. As you wish." She said as she left the throne room.

As the doors closed behind her she looked down, and briefly shook her head as she made her way through the empty hallway. She walked for a few seconds before she began to hear chatter at the end of one of the branching hallways. It sounded like Galexia was talking with someone.

Karmelody pressed her fingers to her head, turning on her sensors. She looked through the wall. It seemed Galexia and General Acedia were discussing something just outside Acedia's quarters.

" I shall be going down to Earth soon. A handful of Metalliwisp soldiers should be enough. Save your CyberShade." Acedia said. Karmelody could practically see the General, looking like a Earthling mob boss from the 1920s, complete with an oversized metallic trench coat and a scarf. He was leaning upon a large walking stick.

Galexia scoffed. "Why you're getting yourself involved only now, so late in the Aether Ranger hunt if you've known who the Blue and Green have been for so many years?" She asked.

"I've made some deals in the past, and let's just say, I'm simply collecting what's due to me. With the added benefit of revenge of course." Acedia said.

"Ah, I see. " Galexia said.

Karmelody clasped her hands together. Did this mean more Power Rangers? How interesting! Even better to know Acedia was going to be confronting the two with out the assistance of one of Galexia's Cybershades. She then crossed her arms in contemplation as she thought about it. If Acedia wanted revenge against them, then the two of them must have been strong. Probably the same who scarred the demon soul inside him, and dismantled him years ago.

This was going to be an interesting fight!

* * *

Liam paced the Aether Temple nervously. Each footstep making a ripple in the mystical surface of the water like reflecting pool. Jasmine and Ken should be back soon with the Blue Zenith Aether Ranger. He was nervous. What if she didn't want to join them? What if King Aradon had already found her before Jasmine and Ken had a chance to get there.

What if those motorcycle people found her first?

Joey looked up from where he was gently petting Nabu the Peacock's head, to see the nervous teenager. Liam had been like this for the last few minutes. Pacing back and forth.

"Calm down man. Stress releases chemicals in the body which cause premature grey hairs and wrinkles. You're going to look pretty weird in about six years when you're my age and your hair is as white as Tenshii's." He said as he scratched the purple peacock behind the ear, making the large bird ruffled it's feathers and release a squawk as if in agreement.

Tenshii ran his hand through his hair. "My hair has been this shade since I was born. It is very common for Elysians to have natural hair colors unlike those of Earthlings." he said.

He then looked reflective at the green light bobbing on top of the water some feet away which recently been releasing bursts of pulsating light. "Though, Riza-our Green Ranger-did have the ability to change appearances at will. He'd been doing it for so long since before we met him that I don't know if even he remembered if his eyes and hair were naturally green or not." He said with a slight laugh.

Shaking his head he looked towards the Bull Eidolon which was staring at the pulsing green light, with an expectant look. Every few seconds it would look over towards the Blue Sphinx whom sat close to him, next to the Blue orb of light, as if asking why things were taking so long.

The Sphinx was sitting calmly in front of the blue light. It sat with regal posture as it waited patiently. Every few seconds, it would look towards the impatient bull, and move it's paw toward the green animal's back pushing it back down every time it began rearing up on it's hind legs impatiently as if to tell it to calm down.

Lisa laughed as she saw the display between the two. She was sitting atop the Pink Scorpions' tail. "Liam. You should take some lessons from Libera over there. She seems calm." She said.

"Libera is a Sphinx. Who knows what she's thinking." Liam said as he crossed his arms.

Just then, Orange and Yellow lights appeared on the water, forming up into a group of four people.

Lisa leapt from the tail of the large scorpion, giving it a slight pat on the head which it snapped it's pincers and lowered itself for a second as it acknowledged the affection and attention. She then quickly paced over to her husband who was currently petting a zealous bear, which was nuzzling it's snout into his chest in greeting.

"C'mon now Callistus. Don't hog him all to yourself." She said as she ran her hand through the yellow fur of the bear, scratching it behind the ears. The bear swatted at it's own nose before walking away.

"How'd it'd go? Did you find Romi Deluca?" She asked.

Ken embraced his wife briefly, giving her a brief kiss on the cheek. He then motioned over his shoulder with his head, where a couple was standing. Lisa noticed a young woman and man were standing there. The young woman in blue had her eyes shut tightly and her hands over her ears. She seemed absolutely terrified.

"Yeah, and it seemed we were treated to a two for one deal at the Indigo Empress. Not only did we find her, but then we find the Green Zenith Crystal as well." He said.

Lianjie was looking around the temple in wide eyed wonder at the majesty of such an unusual place. They've got to be Aliens he thought. Extra terrestrial beings from outer space and this was their space ship. They had abducted him and Romi for the purpose of conducting experiments on humans. Romi had already been kidnapped by them once, and that's where she had gotten her power from. Yes. It seemed like a logical explanation enough-given nothing about this place seemed logical.

Before he had time to react however he took note there was a large green bull charging at him. He braced himself to be run over by the large green horned bovine, readied himself to feel it's strong sharp hooves tearing into his face, and easily stomping all of his bones into dust.

However, this did not seem to be the case. Lianjie soon came to realize this as he felt warm breath on his neck. He heard the loud snorting of the creature, as it recoiled briefly. He felt something warm and slimy on his head.

"Aww. how cute! Tau likes you-and here he was worried that he wasn't going to like you at all." Joey said with a smile as he helped the young Asian man to his feet.

"-or he just happens to like the taste of lavender massage oil." Lianjie said as he tried to clean the bull's spit from his hair.

Romi slowly opened her eyes as she felt a calming presence surrounding her. As she opened her eyes, she came face to face with the aura-image of a Sphinx. The creature sat before her with an expectant look, as if it didn't know what to think of her, and was waiting for her approval, but letting the woman take her time.

"Tenshii, this is Romi DeLuca and Lianjie Li. The holders of the Blue and Green Zenith Crystals." Ken said as the white haired Elysian approached the group.

Tenshii had a warm smile on his face as he acknowledged the two newcomers, welcoming them to the Aether Temple and introducing himself and the others to them.

"Why are we here?" Lianjie asked as he took a step closer to Romi.

"Why do you think you are here?" Tenshii said.

Slowly Lianjie held up the hairpin and looked at the green colored crystal. "It's because of this. Right?"

"Yes. The Zenith Aether Crystals." Tenshii said with a smile. He began to explain to the couple the origins of how the Zenith Crystals came to Earth, and the Zenith Elysian Order and their battle against Briezora. He explained to the two of them how now they have been chosen to inherit the powers of the Elysian Zenith Aether Rangers.

As Tenshii finished his story, Lianjie's brow furrowed. Power Rangers huh? He thought. He'd only been joking whenever he made the suggestion to the Crystals linked to the Power Rangers, to find out he was right? Disturbing.

* * *

"This is so cool!" Amber whispered as she looked over the top of her menu. She leaned closer to Matt whom was sitting in the booth next to her.

"It's like we're basically being paid to be on a date!" She said.

"-with your brother sitting at the bar, and your mom and dad across the room-and having to keep an eye out for any of King Aradon's troops. Reminds me of our first date." Matt said. His voice was full of sarcasm as he looked down. A small smile crept on his lips as he looked over at his girlfriend.

Amber suppressed a laugh as she playfully elbowed Matt in the side. However her laughter and playfulness was quickly extinguished as her eyes travelled to the front doors. A male robot wearing mobster clothing entered. Accompanying him was a handful of Metalliwisp soldiers, which flooded into the building like mist making their way around the restaurant.

"Hmm. This can't be good." Amber muttered out of the corner of her mouth to Matt as they watched the Machine enter.

Acedia cleared his throat, bringing the entire restaurant to silence. Only the sound of music lightly being played through the speakers floated through the air. Tension hung heavy in the air He made his way towards one of the tables and took a seat.

"Wel-Welcome to the Indigo E-Empress. H-How c-can we help you to-today?" A nervous waitress asked as she slowly approached the table.

Looking up at the nervous waitress, Acedia held up his hand, rejecting the menu handed to him. He looked directly at the terrified woman. His eyes flashed. "Yes. I would like to speak with the owner of this establishment." he said.

"Bu-But Miss Deluca...she-she's in her office in a meeting." The waitress said.

Acedia crossed his arms, "Then go get her."

The waitress staggered backwards for a second, defensively clutching the menus to her chest as if to protect herself. She quickly darted through the crowd towards the door leading up to the office of the restaurant.

Amber frowned as she looked over at Matt. "This is going to turn bad. We both know DeLuca isn't upstairs. When Acedia realizes it, he might order the Metalliwisps to attack." She said.

Matt squeezed his girlfriend's hand. "You remember what your grandfather said. If the Machine Empire shows up, we're to hold our position until absolutely necessary." he said.

"Right." Amber said, though her voice faltered.

"I'm bored already of this waiting." Acedia said as he tapped his foot impatiently.

The waitress returned a few minutes later, her face red with tears and her hands gripping the menus in her arms as she approached the machine.

"I-I-I'm s-sor-sorry! Miss D-Deluca-isn't here right now. D-Do you wa-want to come back some other time, or w-wait until she-she comes b-back?" the waitress stuttered out.

Acedia crossed his arms. "I'll wait. She should be back soon." She said.

Someone approached through the crowd, coming towards Acedia'a table. Their leather gloved hand placed a deck of cards down on the table across from the mobster robot.

"Hey, It's them! The Red and Black Riders!" Amber said in whispered surprise as she saw the two of them. With their faces still obscured by the helmets.

"Of course. You find Aether Crystals, and those two aren't too far behind." Matt said.

"Ah. Yes. If it isn't you two." Acedia said as he looked up at the two standing across from him.

"Hello Acedia. It's been a little while." The Black Rider said crossing her arms.

Acedia eyed the deck of cards on the table. "Do I know you?" he asked.

"One could say so. If you think hard enough." The Black Rider said.

A flash of recognition appeared in Acedia's eyes and he leaned on the table, resting his elbows against the table. He made a deal for this woman's soul some years ago, but he'd been unable to take her soul.

"Here to allow me to collect on the debt you owe me? After all, I've kept my promise, even though you lacked the full payment owed." Acedia said.

The Black Rider shook her head, and sat down. She picked up the cards and began shuffling them. "Maybe. If the cards are in your favor. " She said.

Looking down at his companion the Red Rider made a slight movement to reach out and stop the woman as she shuffled the cards. He then crossed his arms and looked down, remaining silent.

Acedia smirked. "Risk what's left of your soul on a game of cards?"

"Black Jack. I'm sure you know how to play." The Black Rider said.

"We play until Miss Deluca shows up. One with highest score at the time is the winner, and has their demands met."

"I agree to this. If you win, I'll let you collect the rest of my soul, to use in any way you wish, and I won't stand in your way trying to collect the Zenith Aether Crystals. Also, you can have everyone's souls." The Black Rider said.

"In the unlikely event you win. I'll leave this place alone, and I'll even give you back your complete soul." Acedia said.

Amber had been so distracted by the tense situation and trying to anticipate where things were going to go, she didn't notice her boyfriend leave the booth, and make his way over to the card players.

"I'm dealer." Matt said as he took a seat, picking up the deck of cards and beginning to shuffle them. He had a determined look on his face which sent a chill down Amber's spine as she heard her boyfriend speak.

"Ah, an Alliance Agent. Now this makes things interesting. Neither one of us have anything to benefit from losing to the dealer." Acedia said with glee in his voice.

"-and the dealer has nothing to gain from either one of us. A fair game, where neither of us have opportunity to cheat as dealer." The Black Rider said.

Matt began shuffling the cards and dealing out the cards to the two. "If dealer wins. You're both under arrest." He said.

* * *

The reflecting pool in the Aether temple rippled and the reflections changed to show the scene in the restaurant to the Rangers.

Romi clenched her fist as she felt a chill in the air around her. "Acedia." She growled. A blue aura was starting to form around her fists. Her eyes flashed with a glowing blue energy briefly as her anger rose.

Lianjie felt a chill run down his spine, and a knot twist in his stomach as he noticed the robot. Though the last time he had heard the name, he had been young, the name had stuck with him. He'd never spoke the name to anyone.

"How do you know his name?" Lianjie asked as he looked over at the woman in blue.

"Acedia was responsible for an incident when I was twelve. My memories are rather blurry, but I remember sensing his presence. His aura was freezing cold-and mom-." She said. She couldn't continue on as she wrapped her arms around herself as if she were experiencing the whole incident again.

* * *

The hallways of the Parallel facility were dark, only the feeble flickering light of busted out wall fixtures provided light. Ice covered the walls, and the fourteen year old could see her breath as she stumbled along the halls, searching for her mother. There was blood on the floor. She had to suppress a scream as the worn rubber sole of her sandals caught a slick patch of half frozen blood next to a dead body of one of the researchers.

There was commotion going on at the end of the hallway. Mist hung low in the hallway, and she could feel a strange aura in the air. As she made it to the end of the hallway, she saw her mother, glowing bright blue with her psychic energy. She was battling against Acedia. However it appeared Acedia seemed to have the upper hand.

The teenager called out for her mother as she watched the woman in blue being smashed against the wall. Acedia turned his attention to her, a glow of delight appearing in the robot's eyes.

Everything became a blur of blue to the teenager, and the next thing she remembered was being only vaguely aware of being carried out of the facility in someone's arms. She wasn't sure who is was, but they seemed concerned about her.

* * *

"I don't remember how I got out of the facility. and awoke in the hospital. But, my mother was gone. Acedia was the reason I'm blind, and the reason mom disappeared." She said.

Lianjie put his hand on the woman's shoulder.

"If it's any consolation. I know exactly how you feel. Acedia took my parents from me when I was younger too." He said.

"Oh?"

Lianjie nodded, "Yeah, about sixteen years ago-when I was eight. I was in a car-wreck when I lived in Japan. I survived, probably because of the Zenith Crystal's power. My father had gone looking for help, and a few minutes later my mother had followed. She told me to stay close to the car so I wouldn't get lost-but...I didn't. When I found them, I found Acedia as well. Next thing I remember I was waking up in a Japanese hospital, and my parents were gone-and I was sent to live with my sister here in America." He said.

Liam crossed his arms as he approached the two of them. "Acedia is one of King Aradon's Generals." He said.

Lisa nodded as she held onto Ken's hand. "You both have reason to fight against Acedia." She said.

Tenshii nodded as he held his arm out. Lathi landed on his outstretched arm. He put his hand on Liam's shoulder as he looked at the group. "I cannot promise this, but if Acedia has taken your family's souls, there still may be a chance to bring them back. This is why we need you to join us."

Lianjie looked over at the green bull which was looking at him with large shining eyes like a puppy in an animal shelter adopted by a loving family. Lianjie could almost imagine the strange creature's thoughts. If it could talk. 'Please say yes! I'll be your best, most loyal friend in the whole wide world and I'll do everything I can for you if you say yes!' Lianjie couldn't help but smile.

"Mom always said going to Angel Grove was only going to get me mixed up in something unbelievably crazy. I guess she was right. But, if there's a chance of helping her and my father, then I have to take it. They didn't give up their souls to Acedia for me to just stand by and do nothing." He said.

He looked over to Romi who was petting the large blue Sphinx behind the ear. She seemed deep in contemplation about the offer being made to the both of them. After a few seconds she finally spoke.

"My mother used to tell me a bedtime stories when I was a child, about a princess who wore a magical crystal in her hair, which she was given by her mother, the Indigo Empress. One day when she was grown the princess went on a quest. On her quest she encountered others with crystals like hers, and they brought her to a magical realm of light, where she would meet with the Grand Phoenix King and a Blue Sphinx. They told her of an evil which had appeared in her homeland. They gave her a choice to join with them and unlock the Crystal's full power, and become a Knight of the Crystal Lotus." She said.

Joey clasped his hands together and looked at the woman in blue anxiously, "Well? Did she?" He asked.

Romi shrugged, "I don't know. Mom never had any more stories of the Princess or the Knights of the Crystal Lotus. I asked her about it-because I really enjoyed the stories. Mom would just smile and tell me it was up to me to decide what happened to the Princess afterward. Those were my stories to tell her." She said.

With a slight smile, she let her hand drop back to her side as she stopped petting the Sphinx. she shook her head. "I'm sure the stories were based off of a premonition she had of me when I was young. It seems those premonitions have come true."

She removed the crystal hairpin from her hair and removed the Zenith Crystal from it. She felt it's smooth glass like surface underneath her fingertips for a few seconds, feeling the latent energy within it. For a brief second she held the crystal to her chest. A small smile appeared on her lips. "Personally, I think the adventures of the Princess as the Blue Knight of the Crystal Lotus, is a far better story to tell my mother if I ever see her again."

Joey let out a loud cheer as lights appeared on Lianjie and Romi's wrists, forming into their Crystallizers.

Liam smiled as he felt his heart beating fast in his chest. He wasn't sure if empathic emotions from Tenshii, or his own joy over the fact two more Rangers were now joining them caused this.

He looked at the group around him. "Alright Rangers. We've got a card game to crash and a General to fight. Let's do this!" He said with a wide smile on his face as he readied his Crystallizers.

The six Rangers readied their Crystallizers, as their Eidolons began to glow. The lights floating on the reflecting pool began to glow brightly, while Tenshii himself became pure light. All of the Rangers went through the motions of their morphing call.

"Crystallize Soul!" they called out as the light surrounded them.

* * *

"Dealer has Nineteen. Dealer wins." Matt said as he flipped over the card in front of him. Sweat was on his brow. The game had been tense for the last few minutes. So far both Acedia and the Black Rider were tied with an equal number of wins.

He glanced across the room to his best friend and future brother-in-law Micah. The sandy blonde haired man had his finger pressed against his ear as if he were listening intently to something and trying to block out all sound.

"Liam just contacted me. They're outside the building, and about to come in. Mom, Dad, Amber and I are going to try to clear the restaurant. Lisa, Jasmine, and Ken are going to help us. Liam, Joey, and the two new Rangers are going to help you. It's about to get crazy in here...so whatever you do...don't let Acedia out of your sight." He could hear Micah's voice faintly in his ear coming over his earpiece communicator.

This wasn't a good time for the Rangers to be bursting onto the scene, but Matt knew this was probably to his best advantage of ending this game; without any further consequence. Acedia would probably attempt to flee from the scene when he saw Rangers arriving; before even thinking about taking the souls of anyone.

Taking a deep breath and hoping for the best, Matt dealt out the cards for the last game.

"How about we make this particular hand more interesting-as it will be our final hand. Your Ranger friends are outside and about to storm the building in a few seconds. All cards face down. no calls." Acedia said.

The Black Rider and Matt looked at each other for a second, before both nodding. Matt dealt out the cards.

"Dealer reveals hand first. Then Acedia. Then me." The Black rider said crossing her arms.

Matt nodded and flipped over his cards. "Dealer has Nineteen."

Acedia tilted his head and shrugged as he flipped over his cards. "Ace seven. Eighteen."

"Black Jack." The Black Rider said turning over her cards, an ace and a ten.

* * *

A green arrow landed on the table, spearing Acedia's cards, and turning the entire restaurant's attention up to the upper dining area of the place. Standing up there was the Blue and Green Zenith Aether Rangers. The Green Ranger holding an bow in his hands, ready to shoot another arrow down into the crowd.

"You've got a lot of nerve showing your face on Earth. Acedia. After everything you've done." Lianjie said.

He mimicked the motions of a bull charging, holding his fists out to either side. "With the spiritual determination of the Bull! Aether Ranger Four: Green!"

"Preying upon the desperation of humans, making promises you don't intend to honor, showing no remorse for who's lives you ruin, or who you hurt as long as you get what you want. You are the worst kind of being, deserving of every ounce of karma due to you!" Romi said, with tones of disgust and distaste in her voice.

Romi fell into a stance similar to a lion bearing it's paws and about ready to pounce on it's prey, before throwing her arms out as to have one arm close to her head with her palm turned outward, and her other arm slightly bent outstretched out ahead of her with her palm turned outward.

"With the Disciplined Serenity of the Sphinx! Aether Five: Blue!"

Together the two spoke in unison as they looked down at Acedia. "We are members of the Zenith Elysian Order, protectors of the Aether of the Elysian Light Realm! Your judgement has come Acedia! Prepare to fall before the power of the Zenith Aether Rangers!"

The other rangers appeared behind them, and the group leapt down from the upper area together, before spreading out to take care of the chaos which had broke in the lower dining area. Liam, Romi, and Lianjie surrounded Acedia and the two riders; while the other rangers started taking care of Metalliwisps and helping evacuate the people from the restaurant.

"Ah, Blue and Green. It's so nice to see you again. Say-Blue, how is that mother of yours doing?"Acedia asked crossing his arms as he got to his feet.

Romi's fists began to glow with a blue aura. She took a step forward, but Lianjie put his arm out to hold her back.

"Hold on. Don't let him get to you."

"Green is right. Attacking me directly is his job. Of course the only way you'd get him to attack is if you were his mother or something- " Acedia said.

Looking over at Romi, Lianjie stepped to the side. "Yeah okay. Now he's ready to get his ass kicked." He said drawing his bow.

Romi nodded and summoned her weapons to her hands; A pair of chakram blades. She rushed at Acedia, swiping at him with the blades. Acedia used the walking cane he had to swipe away the attacks.

Lianjie began firing arrows, and using his bow as a sword to attack Acedia.

The two engaged in battle for a while, Acedia exchanging blows with them, which flew off in sparks. In one swipe he knocked Romi back, sending her flying over the counter of the bar.

Romi caught her fingertips on the counter before she completely cleared the counter, using her grip to gain balance in a handstand. However a group of Metalliwisps swarmed her, trying to climb the counter and attack her. She kicked at the creatures, using her arms to try to spin herself around. She hooked her leg around the neck of a Metalliwisp, in a lock. She pulled herself up landing a few punches on the Metalliwisp, before flipping him over and slamming him into the ground and rolling to her feet.

Acedia locked blades with Lianjie's bow, the two battling for control for several seconds, the strength of proved to be equal keeping them locked together and unable to move for several seconds.

"Don't think just because you've got a fancy new suit it's going to make you any stronger." Acedia said as his eyes flashed as he looked at the Green Ranger.

"I'm not a scared kid in the woods this time." Lianjie said.

Acedia reached into his hip holster and pulled out a blaster, taking aim at the Green Ranger, knocking him back as he shot the gun. Two electrical barbs shot from the gun, latching on to the Green Ranger's suit.

A white hot pain shot through Lianjie's side, causing him to drop his bow as his muscles contracted from the surge of electricity coursing through his body.

The Red Rider caught the fallen Green suited warrior. He noticed the wicked metal barbs sticking out of the Ranger's side. Without a word he grasped the sparking barbs. He winced in pain as the electrical surge bypassed the leather of his gloves and entered into his own body. He let out a pained grunt as he ignited his hand setting fire to the metal. In a few seconds the barbs began to glow molten red and the Red Rider pulled them from Lianjie's body.

Lianjie took a breath as the pain subsided as the electricity died down, leaving nothing but a tingling sensation and acute numbness in his side. The Red Rider gave a thumbs up while tilting his head, as if asking him if he were okay.

"Y-Yeah. I'm okay. Thanks."Lianjie said as he got to his feet.

The other Rangers rushed to Lianjie's side, leaving the remaining Metalliwisps to Liam's family to take care of, now the restaurant patrons evacuated from the premises.

Liam stood in front of the group. "I think it's time for an Eidolon strike." He said.

The group nodded and fell into formation behind him. Jasmine and Joey lining up slightly behind Liam, and Ken and Lisa kneeling down slightly off to the side in front of Liam, while Romi and Lianjie were close to each other kneeling down on the ground directly in front of Liam.

"Eidolon Gravity Strike!" Romi and Lianjie shouted as spectral images of the Bull and Sphinx Eidolon rushed at Acedia. The Sphinx let out a roar and unfolded it's wings, letting out a orb of blue from the jeweled circlet on her head colliding with Acedia and lifting him into the air and float. The Bull Eidolon's horns began to glow with green energy, and the two beams connected at the tip of it's curved horns forming up into a large orb, which it tossed towards Acedia causing him to crash into the ground, struggling to get to his feet, as dents began to appear in his tough metal.

"Eidolon Ground Strike!" Lisa and Ken shouted sending the Scorpion and Bear Eidolons towards Acedia who was staggering to his feet. The Scorpion wrapping it's tail around the machine man, and the Bear Eidolon clawed at him, squeezing him in a tight grasp before tossing him back up into the air.

"Eidolon Air Strike!" Jasmine and Joey shouted, the Butterfly and Peacock Eidolon teaming up flying in circles around Acedia, creating a vortex of air around him and attacking as they flew around him.

"Phoenix Charge!" Liam shouted sending the Phoenix Eidolon flying towards Acedia.

As the light from the attack cleared and the Eidolons disappeared. Acedia crashed into the ground.

He stumbled back to his feet, grasping at a particularly nasty gash across his face exposing the wiring underneath. His body smoking for the heat of the energy. He touched his face, feeling the jagged edges of the torn metal. He let out a small laugh.

"As in the art of gambling, the best player knows when to walk away and place his bet on another day." He said. He reached towards his forehead and a brief silvery glow appeared soon engulfing his body.

Lianjie rushed forward reaching out to try to catch Acedia before he completely disappeared. However his fingers grazed the light, and only grasped some of the mist in his fingertips which quickly dissipated at his touch. He let out a frustrated grunt, looking towards the sky where Acedia had vanished.

"It's warming back up. He's gone." Romi said as she wrapped her arms around herself taking a few steps forward.

"He'll be back." Liam said as he looked around at the destruction which had occurred around the restaurant.

The Black Rider looked over at the Red Rider. The United Alliance Agents and the Rangers seemed to have let them slip from their notice. The two of them nodded in silent agreement to leave while they still had the chance.

* * *

In the Aether Realm a few hours later Tenshii paced the reflecting pool of the temple. His arms crossed and his brow furrowed in serious contemplation. Lathi flew down onto his arm as he looked around the garden's from the top of the temple steps.

"There is only one more piece left Lathi, before the Zenith Crystal is complete. I'm sure even Breizora knows this too. I can sense it in the vibration of the Aether." He said as he turned back towards the inside of the temple. His eyes focused on the Lotus like throne at the other end of the room.

Crossing his arms as Lathi crawled up onto his shoulder, Tenshii sighed. "Of course I'm nervous, Lathi. I feel there is something wrong-there's something different about the energy of the Zenith Crystal now I can't quite explain. It's not like it was before." He said.

He knelt down and dipped his hands into the reflecting pool's water. As he brought his hands up he let the water flow back into the reflecting pool from between his fingers and off the sides of his cupped hands. The falling water caught in the glimmering white light permeating through the realm creating a rainbow light as the droplets fell back into the water creating ripples throughout the water.

* * *

The Black and Red Riders had set up camp in the woods just outside of Angel Grove. The small camp area lit by a small fire. Over the fire was a small kettle which boiled some soup. The Black Rider knelt beside the fire, stirring the soup, a contemplative look on her lightly lined face.

The Red Rider's suit lay off to the side near his helmet. He was away having gone to a truck stop a short distance away from the campsite in order to grab a quick shower, dressed in more civilian attire.

He won't say it, but he's angry, The Black Rider thought as she looked down into the kettle. She heaved a sigh as she stirred the liquid inside. She knew he wasn't happy about her almost risking the remainder of her soul in a game. Sure she had won, but he had berated her for the whole situation the entire way back.

The sound of footsteps echoed through the air. The Black Rider got to her feet and drew out the blade on her back. Her partner should not have been back so soon. She could feel a cold chill in the air around the camp; even though she was standing close to the fire.

The firelight and moonlight fell on the metallic form of a large robot which had the appearances of a masked wrestler. He was not alone however, at his side was a more human sized machine, whom had the appearances of a cyber ninja. Complete with a body suit which had lights running through some of the detail. He carried a sword on his back.

"Hey, Look at this Noh! Acedia was right on where we'd find her." The larger robot said.

"Ah. I remember you-Invidia right? Surprised something with as many bolts loose and dings in his skull managed to obtain the rank of General? But I suppose Aradon-or rather Breizora-finds his uses out of you...though far be it from me to ever understand them." The Black Rider said as she readied her blade in defense.

She looked over to the other robot accompanying the wrestler. "You-I've never seen before. You a Cybershade?" She asked.

"Even the Cybershades have a chance to become Generals if King Aradon sees them fit." The Cyber Ninja said as he drew out the blade on his back.

The Black Rider shrugged, "Sure. I get it. Send the new hire to back up the clumsy brute. If the mission succeeds-it'll look impressive to your superiors. If you fail, you can put the blame on him being new. Make yourself look better." She said.

Invidia let out a booming laugh as he bared his fists at the Black Rider. "Actually, we're here to collect on the debt you owe Acedia. He'd come do it himself-but he's currently having to recover after those Rangers tore up his face pretty bad. So he asked us to collect on it."

"Acedia must have been hit harder than we thought. He seems to forget I won." The Black Rider said.

Another booming laugh issued from Invidia.

"Easy to win, when the cards were being dealt within your favor." Noh said as he took a step forward, causing the Black Rider to take a step back in defense.

"I can't be blamed for what that boy did." She said.

"Heh. See that's not it. This has nothing to do with that silly game." Invidia said clasping his fists together, cracking his knuckles.

The Black Rider tilted her head in confusion.

"Seems Acedia doesn't even have the small fraction of your soul, he thought he had. Seems in all the confusion of the night. Your soul slipped right out of his hands...somehow. He doesn't have a clue what happened to it." Invidia said.

A slight chuckle issued from Noh's mouth as he nodded to himself, "Except I know, and I think you do to." He said.

The Black Rider reached into the pouch at her hip and pulled out an eight pointed star shaped black crystal, which glimmered with an internal light. Flecks of rainbow colors moved like liquid across the surface, appearing from and sinking back into the dark abyss.

"Crystallized Nadir Aether, tinted with Zenith Aether and part of a human soul. Your soul. Whatever the hell it was which appeared the night Acedia tried to take your soul, created such a crystal. " Noh said as he looked at the crystal in the Black Rider's hand.

The Black Rider looked at the crystal. She was well aware of the properties of the crystal-and even a few she was sure neither of then were aware of. It's part of what led her out in search of the Zenith Crystal Fragments.

"Both Acedia and Galexia want you because of it. After all it's the first Aether Crystal produced in over 200 Millennia." Noh said.

"200 Millennia, now don't I feel special?" The Black Rider said as she pocketed the crystal again.

"Look, little lady, let's just put it this way. You're going to come with us."Invidia said as he approached her.

The Black Rider scoffed.

"Noh. I think you know what to do. " Invidia said as he looked over at the smaller machine.

With a nod, Noh swiped at the Black Rider with his sword. In a quick motion the Black Rider blocked the sword with her own blades, and deflected them. The two engaged in combat, trying to strike each other with their weapons, only to find the other dodging out of the way.

A blast of fire soared through the area forming up into a flaming spectral horse, which reared back on it's hind legs, breaking the two battlers apart as they both rolled out of the way in opposite directions to avoid being trampled.

All eyes turned towards the source of the spectral stallion as it disappeared. A young asian man with long hair tied back in a ponytail, stood there with his hands outstretched, both glowing red and surrounded by brightly glowing flames. His eyes seemed to flash with an internal fire, and he was breathing heavily.

"You stay out of this!" Invidia shouted as he turned his attention to the young man.

The Red Rider staggered backwards for a second as the large machine approached, before taking a deep breath and reigniting his bare fists. With a shout he charged at Invidia, striking him against the chest.

Invidia grasped the young man's fist when he stuck at him again. The flames surrounding the Red Rider's fists didn't seem to bother the large robot. With a growl the Red Rider attempted to push back on the wrestler android. The action only caused the machine to laugh and push the young man to the ground. Invidia lifted up his leg to stomp. As he was about to bring his foot down on the Red Rider, the young man threw his hands up, creating a barrier around himself which protected him from the heavy footfall, allowing for him to roll out of the way.

Noh swiped at the Black Rider again, cutting through the covering of the tent they were near. The sharp blade tore the thin tarp like fabric, and slicing through the metal reinforcements which gave the tent shape. The Black Rider dodged out of the way of the blade with a cartwheel. She was heaving heavily as she returned the attack, locking swords with the Cyber Ninja.

"You're every bit the fighter he said you would be." Noh said.

The Black Rider tried to catch her breath, as she swiped at Noh, "He?" She asked.

"Your husband." Noh said.

The Black Rider stook a step back, before asking; "What do you know about him?"

"A lot more than you do."

"Tell me, where is he?"

"Drifting in a dream I suppose? It's hard to say. However If you give us the crystal and join with the Machine Empire, I can arrange a meeting." Noh said.

"Forget it." The Black Rider said.

Noh swiped at the Black Rider again and locked blades with her. "I don't think you're quite understanding me. If you want to see your husband again-You'll come with us." He said. The Black Rider swiped at him, again, but he caught her wrist in his arm and looked down at her.

The eyes of his mask began to glow, and his arm began to glow. The Black Rider's fist unclenched in his grasp, and her hand began to shake, causing her to drop the swords she was holding. Her breathing became shallow and quicker as images passed through her mind in a complete rush. Noh let go of her hand, shoving her backwards, causing her to fall to her knees.

"You-bastard." She heaved out, her voice choked with sobs.

Noh put his blade back in the sheath on his back. He knelt down and picked up the Black Rider's blades. He examined the blades in the firelight, running his hand over the smooth metal. He studied the blade curiously for a few seconds before holding his hand out to the Black Rider.

"You will come with us?" He asked.

With a frustrated grunt and a shake of her head the Black Rider batted Noh's hand away, and got to her feet. "Yes." She said, getting to her feet and removing her helmet. tossing it to the side. Her face completely obscured by the heavy darkness of the trees they stood under.

"Thank you." Noh said, as he handed the blades back to the Black Rider. He then turned towards Invidia whom engaged in battle with the Red Rider. He held his hand up and motioned towards himself, to signal to the larger robot they had come for what they were after.

The Red Rider rolled to his feet after avoiding another stomp from Invidia. He was breathing heavily. He tried to make a move towards the Black Rider who's hands were being bound together by glowing silver rope-like light. He shot a blast of fire towards them, but it collided with a silvery barrier from Noh.

"Invidia, I'll take care of her. You handle the boy. " Noh said.

Invidia nodded and cracked his knuckles as he approached the heavily breathing young Asian. He was going to enjoy dismantling this tiresome human. Now with his support gone, Invidia thought, he wouldn't dare even try to attack. Not if he cared about her and her safety.

The Red Rider closed his eyes as Invidia came closer. He took a few deep breaths to try to calm his breathing. After muttering something under his breath, he looked back towards Invidia, with a renewed fire in his eyes. He held his hands out igniting them, the fire began to condense in his right hand, forming up into something solid. In a few seconds the bright light of the fire cleared forming up in something which looked like a large zippo lighter with a design in the center which displayed a triangular pattern.

He flicked the lighter open, where a red light displayed. He drew the triangular symbol on the ground in front of him. The light trailed behind leaving the glowing red symbol on the ground. He took a step forward to position himself in the center of the symbol.

" _Shokan! Mugen no orora_!" He shouted, his voice echoing through the air, as he closed the lighter, and pulled the arm he had the device in up, the light followed surrounding his body. As the symbol rose up it covered the Red Rider's body in light, a trail of flames floated beneath the light, burning it away and revealing a shiny red spandex like suit. As the symbol reached the Red Rider's head it formed up into a red helmet not unlike a motor-cycle helmet. On the sides of the helmet was a design of a horse emblem in white.

Across the chest of the suit, were three gold bands which wrapped around the suit. in the center of the chest the lines formed into a triangular pattern, similar to the one drawn which formed the suit.

" _Hi no shokan-shi! Minami Ororarenja_!" He shouted.

Noh tilted his head as he looked at the Red Rider. "South Aurora Ranger huh? This makes things more interesting."He said.

Invidia cracked his knuckles and approached the now transformed Red Rider. "Eh. Doesn't matter if you've got a shiny suit or anything. I'll still crush you like the little bug you are!" He said as he threw another punch towards the Red Rider.

The Red Rider dodged out of the way, returning the hit with a whip of fire. He wrapped the whip around Invidia pulling on it to try to force him off balance and knock him to the ground.

The wrestler android wrapped his fist around the flaming whip, and held tight to it. His fist became surrounded by silver light. The flames of the whip began to turn silver and freeze solid around the fire. The Red Rider let out a stunned gasp, and quickly released the whip, as the cold Silver flames touched his gloved hands.

Invidia approached, charging up his fist with the silvery fire he summoned. He drew back his fist before swinging at the Red Rider with all his might. The hit collided with a fire shield which surrounded the Red Rider's arms, the Red Rider gritted his teeth as he tried to keep Invidia's flaming fist from breaking through the barrier between them.

However with his guard placed solely against Invidia in front of him, he was not aware of the spectral silvery fists which appeared from seemingly nowhere. The fists collided with the middle of the Red Rider's back repeatedly. Each blow from the ghostly fists landed on the young man with the force of a boulder. The final hit, as the fists hit together, he let out a roar of pain, as his suit glowed and the light dispersed leaving him in his civilian clothing once again, as he fell to the ground.

Invidia grabbed the Red Rider around the collar as he pulled him up off the ground, holding him up by the throat effortlessly with one arm. The device the Red Rider used to transform was loosely grasped in his hand. As he tried to flick the device open again. Invidia used his free arm to take the device out of the young man's hand. He held it up for the young man to see as he crushed it like an aluminium can in his hand, tossing it aside onto the ground.

"Stop!" The Black Rider shouted as she watched Invidia hold up her young friend by his neck. The young man's face was already starting to turn blue from lack of oxygen getting to his airways. Invidia let out a laugh as he looked at the Red Rider, slamming his silver flamed fist into the young man's gut, and knocking what wind he had left in him out. He then tossed the youth to the ground, leaving him sputtering, coughing, and gasping to regain breath as he lay clutching his stomach.

"Not worth my time anyways." Invidia said as he turned and walked away, joining the other two, the three of them vanished.

The Red Rider lay on the ground, slipping from consciousness as the pain became too great. The campfire extinguished itself as a blast of cold air came through the camp.


	5. Knight of the Infinite Aurora

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The identity of the Red Rider is revealed and he explains why he and the now kidnapped Black Rider were seeking out the Zenith Aether Crystals. Meanwhile Briezora's forces continue to grow as a dormant former Demon General known as Heket possesses the body of the Black Rider. The Final Piece of the Zenith Aether Crystal is revealed.

**Disclaimer** : I do not own the rights to Power Rangers.

 

* * *

**Chapter 5: Knight of the Infinite Aurora**

The sun shone down upon the woods just outside Angel Grove. The early morning air held a comfortable chill as the sun dried the dew from the grass. The soft light of the rising sun shone through the trees giving the feeling of a new day. Jasmine felt the crisp air biting at her lungs as she inhaled and stopped for a minute to catch her breath. She reached for the bottle of water at her hip, taking a long drink from it and wiping a sheen of sweat from her forehead. Today was perfect for an early morning run.

Even better she was being joined on this run by a couple of her fellow Rangers; Joey, Romi, Lisa, and Ken and their daughter Najera. It reminded her a lot of being back home in Silver Hills, training with her squad. They'd usually start their training off with a nice five mile run every morning. She put her hand on her hip as she turned towards the group catching up to her.

"Looks like a rookie like you is holding up pretty well!" Jasmine said as Joey, caught up to her.

Joey ran his hand through his sweaty hair, before taking a drink from the water-bottle at his hip and holding it to his forehead for a second. Letting the cool condensation forming on the icy bottle cool down his skin. He put his hands on his knees to stretch out his back for a second before flashing a wide grin at Jasmine. "This is nothing. I got through college on a Track and field scholarship and some local advertisement modeling and local commercial acting." He said with a laugh.

"If being dressed in an red-pig costume and dancing on camera in front of a car-dealership counts as modeling." Romi's voice said as she patted the sweat from her face down with a towel.

"A pig? How cute!" Lisa said with a smile as she pictured the image in her head.

Ken had to suppress a laugh as the image came into his head of Joey being dressed in such an absurd costume and dancing popped into his head.

"You played a piggy?! I played a piggy too! Everyone said I was the cutest!" Najera said, from her father's shoulders.

Lisa nodded as she patted her daughter on the head, turning towards Joey, "We put on a performance for the children's hospital a while back. We did a whole fairy-tale story; Najera was one of the three little pigs, and I was Mother Goose." She said.

"Still I can't believe you danced in a pig costume!" Jasmine said trying to suppress a giggle which only forced a lopsided grin on her face.

"It wasn't just a pig, it was a Razorback. University of Arkansas mascot. He's kind of a big deal back home. Lot of people in to college sports in Arkansas. I mean since we don't have our own national league team, you kind of have to be into the college or the High-School Leagues." Joey said with a shrug and a smirk on his face as the Blue Ranger approached.

Romi crossed her arms and shook her head and turned her blind gaze towards Jasmine. "However it's not the University team he ran track for." She said with a smirk on her face.

Joey looked over at Romi and put his hands on his hips and shrugged. "Tease me all you want. My resume is publicly available and there isn't a school nor gig I'm embarrassed about on it; including dancing Razorback." He said with a laugh.

"Whatever you say, Wonder Boy..." Romi said. However her voice trailed off and she began to look troubled.

"What's wrong?" Jasmine asked looking over at the auburn haired woman who's unseeing gaze was focused on the woods ahead of her.

She held her arm out, a blue aura of energy surrounding her hand. Her eyes glowing blue. She seemed too into a sort of trance-like state, swaying back and forth on her feet, remaining completely silent.

"Miss Romi?" Najera asked as her father put her down on the ground. She reached out to touch Romi's hip to get her attention. Ken immediately grabbed his daughter's hand, careful not to touch Romi himself.

"She may be astral projecting. We don't want to touch her. it might hurt her." Ken explained to the confused woman in orange.

"Oh. Okay. What's Astral Projecting?" Najera asked.

"Miss Romi has the ability to put her consciousness into other places, without having to physically be there." Ken explained as he knelt down to the young girl.

Najera nodded understanding her father's explanation. "So it's like when I'm at school, but I'm thinking really hard about being at home, it's like I'm actually there, but I'm still at school." She said.

Ken nodded, "One way of thinking about it." He said.

From off in the distance in the woods, Jasmine could see a faint blue glow. She looked over at the other three rangers with her. She had a feeling the blue glow must have been where Romi projected her consciousness to.

"Lisa, Joey the two of you stay here and keep an eye on Romi. Ken, I think Romi's projection is over there, Let's go check it out." She said turning to each of the Rangers as she addressed them.

"Najera, you stay here with Mommy and be a good girl." Ken said as he gave his daughter a pat on the head. The little girl nodded and walked over to her mother grabbing the pink-haired woman's hand.

With a simultaneous nod from the three rangers, Jasmine and Ken departed from the group and headed into the woods. It took them a while to reach Romi's projection, having to push aside some of the over-grown brush between the trees in order to make their way further into the forest.

* * *

The two of them found Romi's blue energy projection standing in the middle of a clearing. The destroyed remnants of a camp were set up. There was a knocked over kettle of cold soup laying a few feet from the smoldering remnants of a fire.

"Looks like there was an attack recently. " Ken said, brushing some of the leaves out of his hair and looking around the camp.

Jasmine noticed Romi's projection seemed to be kneeling over a specific spot at the base of the camp. She approached, taking note of the body of a young Asian man, probably somewhere in his late teens or early twenties, was laying unconscious. His clothes were torn, and Jasmine could see various bruises and cuts covered his body.

She gently reached forward, and put her hand on the young man's shoulder. His body was still warm, and she could see the gentle, though pained breathing. He seemed to respond to her touch, letting out a groan and whimper of pain as her fingers grazed the bruises gently. However he didn't seem capable of much else. Jasmine slowly reached forward and helped brush some of the fallen leaves out of his dark hair, the tips of which were dyed light caramel brown.

" _It's odd to say, but he smells warm. Like heated leather. His aura...it's familiar."_ Romi's voice said through the projection.

"The same aura as the Red Rider?" Ken asked, his voice causing the two women to turn towards him. He was kneeling on the ground, examining a red and black helmet and discarded body-suit.

Jasmine glared and immediately turned her attention back to the unconscious man. So this was the true face of the Red Rider? This was the same man whom attacked them time and time again in pursuit of their Zenith Crystals. She couldn't believe someone like him could do any of those things. Then again, if she learned one thing in her training; appearances could be deceiving. Never judge a book by its cover.

"No sign of his partner." Jasmine said as she looked around the clearing. She noticed a black helmet was laying discarded a few feet away.

" _I sensed cold-aura remnants, strong ones. Similar to Acedia. Two of them. Generals were here, probably about twelve hours ago. Her aura seems to disappear around the same time. She went with them. Judging from the bruises and the damage to the camp, he wasn't invited along."_ Astral-Romi said shaking her head.

Jasmine raised an eyebrow. "You can see the bruises?"

Astral Romi nodded. " _Weird huh? I only have sight when I'm like this."_ She said.

"Weird doesn't even begin to describe it." Jasmine said shaking her head and turning her attention back to the unconscious man in red.

"So what are we going to do with him?" Ken asked as he joined the two women.

Jasmine got to her feet and dusted the wet leaves from her pants. "We're going to take him with us back to the base. His injuries don't seem life-threatening at least nothing we can't have a medical team look at. We need to find out what he knows about what happened here last night; and why he and the Black Rider were after our Zenith Crystals." She said.

Ken nodded and held out something in his hand to Jasmine. A decorative lighter device. However the device was crushed and broken. "I'll let you guys handle the interrogation. I'm going to check this out." He said.

Romi turned towards both of them, " _I'm heading back. I'll let Lisa and Joey know what's going on_." She said, before her image disappeared like smoke.

Both Jasmine and Ken helped to get the young man to his feet, slinging his arms over their shoulders to support his weight between the two of them. They slowly made their way back through the forest.

* * *

Excitement buzzed throughout the Machine Base. Karmelody could feel it in the air of the silent hallways of the castle. A strange energy seemed to tinge the usual heavy air. All of her father's Generals were meeting in the throne room with her father. Apparently General Noh and Invidia had brought a human directly into the castle some times ago.

She found slipping into the throne room unnoticed to be a rather easy task, as everyone present seemed focused on the solo figure standing in the middle of the room. Karmelody pushed her way towards a pillar close to the clearing in the middle of the room in order to get a better look at the human they'd brought back.

"Your Highness!" Invidia's voice said from the opposite side of the room. He and Noh were both kneeling before King Aradon on either side of woman with black hair in a short chin-length bob wearing a black motor-cycle outfit.

Karmelody was rather surprised to see this woman seemed so much older than she imagined. She was well up into her mid forties and of mixed euro-Asian ethnicity from what Karmelody could make of her scan of the woman. Not exactly the description she was expecting of someone worthy of being presented in such a manner before her father. If they'd captured a Power Ranger, then maybe all this would be necessary. There was a reason this woman was here, and Karmelody was curious to know why.

"Ugh! What is such a disgusting human doing here?" Archerina asked as she looked down at the woman in black.

Noh bowed his head briefly, ignoring Acherina's words as he addressed his king. "My Lord, this woman carries a crystal with her, which I believe may be of some use and interest to you. "he said.

He then looked over at Galexia whom was approaching the group from the shadows. Her metallic high-heels echoed with each footfall on the stone floor as she approached. In her arms was a canister much like the Soul-Canisters which she used to power the Cybershades. As she approached she opened the canister, delicately lifting the black star shaped crystal out.

Aradon leaned forward as he saw the Crystal. "A Nadir Crystal?"

Galexia held the crystal up as she examined it, "The base Nadir-Dark Aether appears to be created of our own realm. Though, considerably younger than our own Nadir Crystals: I'd say the base was created about 20 millennia ago. Given touches of Zenith Aether; I feel I can pinpoint with one hundred percent accuracy when this crystal was created." She said. Her voice seemed to carry a intrigued tone to it.

She then let out a laugh as she shook her head, "My Lord. This crystal was created in the struggle between you and the Zenith Aether Guardian 20 millennia ago. It is neither Nadir Aether nor Zenith Aether, but both. " She said.

With a shake of her head she admired the constantly shifting liquid-like colors on the black surface. "Crystallized Aether as it originally was before our worlds were split apart. Or at least it would be if there wasn't unusual energies in the crystal: namely the presences of a human soul, and an Elysian soul." She said.

"Elysian soul? Another soul?" Noh asked, as if he were legitimately curious about the presence.

Galexia nodded, "The human soul is fragmented, it's the same one which Acedia failed to extract a few years ago. When the incident happened, the Elysian soul in the Crystal became active and that fragment of human soul Acedia thought he had was drawn into the crystal instead." She explained.

The Black Rider looked over at Galexia, "You assume picking up her soul was an accident." She said. Her voice was cold and stern. The tone of her voice caused Noh, and Galexia to turn towards her, while Aradon and Senphonea were looking down at the scene curiously.

"Ah, so the Crystal has bonded with the human allowing the Elysian to use the connection to take control over the human's body; using her as a vessel in this world." Galexia said crossing her arms.

The Black Rider glared at Galexia. "No different from how you are. Except I didn't find a machine to take over." She said.

"Tell me Elysian. Who are you, and of which side of the barrier did you come from?" Aradon asked.

Kneeling down to Aradon, The Black Rider bowed her head. "I didn't expect you to recognize me in this human's body, but it is I, your General Heket." She said.

Aradon got to his feet and slowly approached. "General Heket. So you have returned to us." He said as she looked at the woman.

The Black Rider nodded, but remained kneeling before Aradon. "I had not been expecting the crystal to absorb my soul. Then I had to wait for this human to find this crystal. The Zenith Aether of the Crystal bonded with her, which I managed to use to my advantage from learning how to manipulate the aether energy in the crystal. Though her resistance was impressively high for a mere human. " She said.

With a small laugh she shook her head as she got to her feet. "I should thank Acedia for trying to come after her soul; if he hadn't, I would never have been able to take complete control and suppress her soul inside the crystal." She said.

A sinister smile crept across Heket's lips. "In any case, I'm here now, and ready to serve you in any way I can. I've even brought you information you may be interested in." She said.

"What sort of information could you possibly bring which would prove useful?" Acedia asked as he approached. His face now sporting a large discolored plate of metal where it had been repaired from being torn open the previous day.

Heket turned towards the machine man. "The identity of the last Zenith Crystal fragment, and I already have a plan on how to get it." She said.

* * *

A dull aching pain, and the sound of electric buzzing from an overhead lamp were the first things which greeted the Red Rider as he awoke. The bright white of the over head fluorescent lights nearly blinded him as he opened his eyes slowly. The sounds of a monitor beeping rhythmically and the humming of someone at the other end of the room caught his attention.

Slowly he sat up, rubbing his eyes to help them better adjust to the light and try to remove some of the dirt from his eyes. As his vision began to clear he became aware of his surroundings. He was laying in something of a hospital room. There were people standing at his bedside. The same people he had encountered many times before: The Zenith Rangers. The White, Orange, Green, Blue, and Yellow Rangers specifically.

"Well, good to see you're awake." Liam said with a slight smile on his face. The Red Rider looked at him curiously. He wondered why the White Ranger was being so friendly towards him. Were they just playing nice to make him think he was safe before they killed him or something?

"Look we're not going to hurt you. We just want some information from you." Jasmine said. "The first question is what is your name?"

"My name is Ryo Matsubara. I am twenty-one years old. I am from Tokyo Japan." The Red Rider said slowly. His voice carried a heavy Japanese accent.

Ken nodded as he typed in a few things on the tablet he was carrying. Ryo felt a uneasiness in his stomach, as he waited for the next question to be asked.

"I'm going to get right too it, Mr. Matsubara. Why were you and your friend after the Zenith Crystals?" Jasmine asked.

Ryo opened his mouth to speak but then shook his head. They were expecting him to respond to their question in English. He wanted to tell them the truth, but he was not fluent enough in English to be able to respond to them properly.

"You won't tell us? There is not use in hiding the truth Mr. Matsubara." Jasmine said crossing her arms.

"Eigo ga sukoshi shika hanasemasen." Ryo said. He didn't know what else to say other than the truth. He only knew a little English. An embarrassed blush appeared on his face as he looked away from the group.

With an understanding nod, Lianjie put his hand on Ryo's shoulder. "Dai joobu desu. Wakarimasu." He said.

A small thrill of hope shot through Ryo as he looked at the man in green. "Nihongo o hanasemasu ka?"

Lianjie frowned, "Nihongo ga sukoshi shika hanasemasen."

The man only knows a little Japanese, but he understands it; while this was beneficial in the long run it would probably get neither of them anywhere. There was no telling how limited the other man's understanding of the Japanese language was.

Jasmine raised an eyebrow as she looked over at the man in Green. "You speak Japanese?" She asked.

"My mother taught English in Japan whenever I was a kid. I grew up around the language. Once I came to America after the accident, I didn't speak it as often. So I'm out of practice." Lianjie explained.

With a nod to himself Ken reached into the pocket of his lab-coat and pulled out a device. He hooked it up to the tablet he was holding for a few seconds before unplugging it and making his way towards Ryo.

"Mr. Matsubara. If it is okay, I'm going to give you a translator. I've programmed it to interpret Japanese into English. You'll find the device capable of mimicking your voice perfectly down to the timing. As well the device will translate our voices into Japanese for the sake of your comprehension." Ken said as he showed Ryo the device.

He nodded, signaling he understood as Ken began hooking the device onto his ear. Ryo was surprised to find the devices seemed to be air-light, as they were placed into his ears like ear-plugs Although they didn't block out noise at all due to their hollowed out cylindrical shape. Even the transmitting device which was placed on his back teeth didn't seem to be noticeable. Ryo found it odd.

" Okay. Do you understand us?" Ken asked.

Ryo blinked as he heard the words being said by the Yellow Ranger in his native language. It seemed so weird. He was still capable of hearing the underlying tones of the man's English words, but primarily he heard his words in Japanese.

"Yes. I can." He said. Again he found himself surprised to hear his own voice leaving his mouth in English though he was speaking in Japanese to them.

"Why were you after our Zenith Crystals?" Jasmine asked.

Looking over Ryo crossed his arms. "Simple answer, I needed it's power. My intent was only to borrow the Crystal. As soon as I was done with it, Ashe and I were going to give it back. I swear. I don't have any use for it's power other than-" He began. He stopped short however, wondering how he could best explain his reasons for needing the Zenith Crystal's power.

Taking a deep breath he shook his head.

"What did you need it for?" Liam asked.

"It's not important. I was going to give it back as soon as I tried what I was going to try. Whether it worked or not." Ryo said, avoiding eye contact with Liam.

" _Ask him why he can Summon Eidolons."_ Tenshii's voice echoed in Liam's head. Liam nodded. He was curious about the young Japanese man's abilities as well. If it had not been for Ryo's abilities to control and create fire from nothing, Liam knew his parents would have died the same night he had become a Ranger. He had to remind himself to thank Ryo for this.

Ryo looked down and got out of bed. He found he was dressed in a pair hospital scrub-pants. His chest was wrapped up in bandages. He crossed his arms as he began pacing the room; trying to figure out the best way to explain.

"We don't call them Eidolons, but I understand what you are asking." He said. He then turned and crossed his arms, pacing back and forth as he explained.

" I am descendant of an ancient lineage of summoners; people who were chosen thousands of years ago to wield the power of the phenomena known as the Infinite Aurora, and given the ability to summon the Celestial warriors whom protected the four divine beings of the elements: They appear in this world as animals. They were known as the Aurora Rangers." He said.

With a shrug he looked over to evaluate the looks on the faces of the Zenith Rangers. They seemed to be listening intently. Given the origin of their own powers, Ryo felt reassured none of his story was being judged to be ridiculously stupid and fantastical to the point of disbelief.

"I am the current representative of three summoner families of the Southern Fire Element. I am the last in my line, and I was chosen by the Infinite Aurora to become the Red Aurora Ranger, also known as the South Aurora Ranger. I am the former Leader of the Shokan-shi Sentai Aurora Rangers. " He said.

Liam crossed his arms and looked at the man curiously. He'd heard of the Super Sentai teams before; the United Alliance worked along side many of the current and former teams throughout the universe and all the dimensions. Liam had always greatly admired the Sentai Heroes whom he'd heard about and met. It made him curious however how a former leader ended up this far away from his team.

"You mentioned a woman named Ashe, Who is she?" Jasmine asked.

Shaking his head Ryo frowned and heaved a sigh. "Ashe Black. She's an ally of the Aurora Rangers. She rescued me from one of the monsters we fought three years ago. She's the one to told me this was a Zenith Crystal Fragment." He said.

"How did she know about the Zenith Crystal?" Liam asked. His brows were furrowed as he tried to run through the possibility of how the Black Rider could have known about the crystals, when they hadn't even been given their proper name among the United Alliance until he had spoken with Tenshii. None of the other Rangers had known it's correct name until they had become rangers either. How did someone seemingly unrelated to all of this know what the call the Crystals, or even what they were?

He looked over at his companions, who were all sporting troubled looks, similar to his own. They all had the same question on their mind.

Ryo shook his head. "I didn't question it. Not until last night that is. When this huge Wrestler Machine, and this Cyber Ninja attacked us at our camp. They were specifically targeting Ashe."

"What would they want with her? I doubt they were just looking to recruit a swords fighting expert; They've already got General Noh." Liam wondered aloud, hoping to prompt the man in red to speak and elaborate further.

"They wanted a crystal from her. This black crystal which Ashe had. She never explained to me what it was while we were travelling together. They said, it was the first crystal of it's kind in 200 millennia, and something about a human soul being in it. I couldn't really understand them. Then they kidnapped her, and beat me up. " Ryo said. He heaved a sigh and shook his head, offering an apologetic look to the Rangers. He wanted to help them under the situation. Right now, they and this United Alliance were the only hope he had of rescuing Ashe.

Liam felt a curious surge of terror in his heart through empathic transmissions. " _What's wrong Tenshii_?" he thought.

_"I have a bad feeling; Ms. Black may be in far more danger than anticipated. If what I believe about this crystal she was in possession of is true, and it's bonded with her soul; then another of Briezora's Demon Generals may soon be awake if she isn't already. If she is, then we are going to be facing a great challenge."_ Tenshii said.

Looking over at the others, he felt he should tell them. However, Liam knew Ryo was concerned about his friend. He didn't even have to ask Tenshii what sort of challenge they would be facing with this new General. He already knew. This new General might be using the Black Rider's body to carry out whatever plans she was going to carry out. It was for the best Ryo not be made aware of this situation. They might have to fight against his friend. If worst came to worst they might end up having to kill her. Liam certainly hoped it would never come to it.

"I think we've gotten all the information we need right now. Mr. Matsubara. If you don't mind. We'll need to talk with our superiors, in regards to what needs to be done now; I'll be sure to mention how helpful you've been to us to our Director. Just sit tight here and don't leave this room. Additional questioning may be required." Liam said as he turned towards the others, before offering a polite half-bow to the Japanese man as the group stepped out of the room with his fellow Rangers.

Ryo sighed and crossed his arms as he sat down on the edge of the bed. "Yeah. Sure." He said.

As the Rangers left the room, Ryo suddenly stood up and took a step towards them. "Rangers. Just so you know. I'm...willing to help you in any way I can now. I know Ashe and I were not the kindest of people to you in the past; but if you can save Ashe from those monsters I'll do whatever you ask of me." he said. His dark eyes brimming with emotion.

She means a lot to him. Liam thought as he nodded giving the Japanese man a reassuring nod everything would be fine. With a small uneasy sight the door closed behind him.

* * *

"Liam, we could have asked him more questions." Jasmine said as the group stood out in the hallway.

Shaking his head, Liam explained exactly what Tenshii had told him, about the potential of Ashe being possessed by a General of Briezora's army. As he finished the explanation, he noticed the troubled looks on the faces of his companions.

"This means we'll need to find the last Zenith Ranger as soon as possible. If this new General is in possession of a complete Aether Crystal, then there is no telling how much of a boost Aradon and his forces are getting from it." Jasmine said crossing her arms and shaking her head.

"Unfortunately we don't have any leads on the Crystal Fragment, and if we don't want to run the risk of having to kill this Ashe woman-we'll probably need to find a way to get this Heket person out of her body." Lianjie said as he put his hands on his hips.

"I'll head back to my lab to see if I might have any research which may prove useful to us in formulating a plan." Ken said.

"I need to get my homework done first, before I can do anything. I'll let my Grandfather and family know what's going on, so we can get some extra help keeping a look out for the last Zenith Crystal Piece. I'll meet back up with you guys in a bit at the Aether Temple, and we can see what we can come up with." He said as he motioned towards the white and black back-pack he had slung over his shoulder.

"Someone should probably let Joey and Lisa know what's going on. I don't have anything going on at the moment: So I guess I'll do it. I'll try to do some research on Mr. Matsubara's friend Ms. Black while I'm at it." Lianjie said with a shrug.

Romi crossed her arms and rubbed her temples for a brief second before shaking her head. Her astral projection earlier had taken more out of her than she initially thought. She had been fighting against a particularly severe migraine, which was interfering with her mental vision. "I should go back to the Empress to help open up for the dinner hours, but I think I'm going to hang around here for a little bit. I'll see what other information I might be able to read from Ryo. If I can." She said.

Nodding to each other and giving a brief goodbye to each other the group headed out down the hallway in different directions.

* * *

Downtown Angel Grove. The sun beginning to set in the sky, casting it's orange glow over the larger glass buildings. Business men and women were just getting off work and on their ways back to their families, or to whatever bar or restaurant they might frequent and spend their hard earned money on.

Hardly anyone was aware of the light silvery mist which rolled in around their ankles. It was only when a woman dressed in a black metallic mask, with a circlet of silver metallic thorn-like spikes. Her hair was silken black, braided into two thick braids which almost reached to the ground and swayed as she walked, stirring up small tornadoes of mist at her feet. On each side of the crown there were smaller face designs in lights crafted into the silvery thorns. Her body was covered in a black body-suit, which was modified with bits of armor, and silver boots. She had a silvery dress reminiscent of a Greek goddess's dress.

Heket smiled to herself as she watched the citizens of the town realize what was going on, as the Metalliwisps began to appear, and attack them. Yes. This was a perfect spot to lure the rangers out. Nicely populated. A nice place to spread the virus and farm more souls. In only a matter of time the Rangers and their alliance would appear.

Only they wouldn't face her alone: she was accompanied by a Cybershade which had the appearance of a female ice-skater.. Her metallic skin was frost-bite black and glimmered with spots of what appeared to be frost but was only small patches of the same silvery goo the Metalliwisps had covering their bodies., her hair a silvery white. Her dress was lined with fur. Though she wore her ice-skates she did not have any trouble gliding down the street, as the ground froze into solid ice at the touch of the blades.

As the humans ran, the ice skater waved her arm causing several of the scurrying individuals to begin slipping and sliding as the ground froze underneath their feet, allowing for the Metalliwisps to attack them better.

Across the street, Joey, Lianjie, and Lisa were leaving the Veil Agency building where Joey worked and were on their way back to the base in order to meet up with the others to begin strategy on what they should do with this new development.

"If we're lucky enough. Tenshii said there may still be time and this General Heket hasn't woken up and taken control of this Ashe's body." Lianjie explained to Joey as they walked down the street.

However Lianjie's voice trailed off as his gaze followed his two fellow Ranger's, beholding the chaos and confusion happening on the street. At first they only saw the thick mist beginning to roll down the street, and the people fleeing from the Metalliwisps as the street began to ice-over. In only a few seconds they saw Heket and her Cybershade approaching.

"So much for luck. Unless Aradon sent down two Cybershades-I'm willing to bet one of those two is General Heket." Lisa said shaking her head and putting her hands on her hips as they saw the two machine-fusion creatures making their way down the street.

The trio jumped slightly as a blue energy projection appeared beside them as Romi's astral projection appeared. "Guys. Ken and Liam are on their way there with Mr and Mrs. McKenzie and the others. Try to hold off the Cybershade and General Heket as long as you can." She said.

Immediately after she put her hand on her temple and audible winced as pain shot through her head, leaving an electric trail across her projection.

"What about you?" Lisa asked hesitantly reaching out to touch the projection, but stopping herself short.

"I'll be there later. Just promise you guys can manage to hang on until then okay?" She said. In an instant her astral image disappeared into the air.

Looking at each other for a brief second, they gave a nod to each other. Now was a better time than any to step in and intervene before things got completely out of hand. They rushed out into the street in the way of the approaching Cybershade and Machine General.

"Alright! This is as far as you go!" Lisa shouted taking the lead among the trio.

The Cybershade looked at the group, tilting it's head in curiosity. "Are these the Zenith Rangers, General?" She asked, her voice almost carrying a chilling tone to it.

Heket crossed her arms and looked at the three Rangers in disgust, "Most of them Cryofever. Three seem to be missing." She said.

Lisa put her hands on her hips, "Oh don't worry about them you goth freak of a goddess. They'll be along soon. For now you've got us-and I think we'll be plenty of enough company." She said giving a glance to the two Rangers on either side of her. With a nod the three readied their Crystallizers.

"Crystallize Soul!" They shouted in unison as they went through the quick motions of morphing, and the light from their Crystallizers engulfed their bodies for a second, before clearing and leaving them in their Ranger forms.

With a hollow laugh, Heket's eyes flashed a deep crimson, and she reached for the swords in the sheaths at her hips. " I guess you can amuse us for a little while." She said before she rushed at them.

* * *

Ryo stared at the auburn haired woman sitting at his bedside. The two of them had been sitting in silence for the last hour and a half. He was starting to wonder if she had fallen asleep. Especially as she had begun to look dazed for a few seconds after the alarms had gone off and two of her fellow Rangers had ducked in to tell her there was a situation going on down town involving a Metalliwisp and CyberShade attack.

"Look, Miss DeLuca. You guys don't have to lie to me about Ashe's situation. She's being controlled by this Heket spirit." He said as he looked over at the woman in blue.

Romi looked down. "Oh."

"Yeah. I've been travelling with Ashe for more than a couple of years now. I've gotten to know Ashe well enough to know the difference between the two." He said.

"Then you know as long as Heket is using Ashe's body she is an enemy of the Zenith Elysian Order, and the United Alliance. We will have to fight her, and the possibility we may end up having to kill her." Romi said.

Ryo gritted his teeth briefly and shook his head, "I can't do it. I don't expect you to understand why." He muttered under his breath. He clenched his fist, and it ignited in a brief flame.

With a sigh Romi got to her feet and turned towards the wall. She tilted her head for a few seconds before turning towards Ryo. She seemed deeply concerned by something, as if she had been told some disturbing information in the few seconds of silence which fell between them.

"We're a lot more alike than you might think Ryo, and I'm not just talking about the Ranger lineage, or the special powers." Romi said as she sat down in the chair at Ryo's beside again.

Ryo clenched his fist and looked down, "Oh so your brother sacrificed himself becoming one with the Four Celestial Gods, and being trapped within the Holy Summoning Diamonds to ensure the hell dimension the forces of evil you fought remained closed, too? Yeah...I can see how we're coming from the same place."

Crossing her arms Romi bit her lip. "It's closer of a common ground than you think." She muttered under her breath.

"What?"

"I can sense a heavy self-guilt in your aura. You feel this crushing responsibility for what happened to your brother. It's why you ran away from your family, it's why you were after our Crystals." Romi said.

Heaving a long sigh, Ryo rubbed his neck and looked towards the door. "Ashe, or Heket whoever she was when I met her, told me the Zenith Crystal would have tremendous power when it was completed; power which might be able to free my brother. So we came all the way out here in search of the Zenith Crystals." He said.

Taking a few steps towards the door Ryo hung his head and scratched his neck for a few seconds before heaving another sigh and putting his hands on his hips. It had been Ashe's idea to come out here in search of the Zenith Crystals, but he wondered if it was all worth the trouble. Though, he was wondering if getting the Zenith Crystal hadn't been part of Heket's plan.

He had never questioned it before, why exactly Ashe seemed so certain the Zenith Crystal was going to revive his brother.

"Damn." He muttered to himself.

"What?"

Ryo put his hand on his head for a second before putting his hands on his hips. "This was all going to happen regardless. If Invidia and Noh hadn't kidnapped Ashe; Heket would have stabbed me in the back before I'd even had a chance to try to save my brother with the Zenith Crystal or even give it back to you guys." He said.

He pushed his pony-tail back over his shoulder and scratched his chin. "I'm such an idiot. Heket has just been using me this whole time to get what she wanted." He said.

Romi sat up in her chair raising her eyebrow curiously.

With a sigh Ryo ignited his fist. In a few seconds the flames condensed into a triangular shaped crystal. Romi felt a strange burst of warmth and an unusual aura appear in the room, similar to the aura of the Zenith Crystals, only this one a red-light vibration. Romi got to her feet in surprise.

"I'm sure you've been wondering how Ashe and I have been able to track your team down, with no affiliation to King Aradon or anyone else. Well, here's your answer. The final piece of the Zenith Crystal." He said.

Ryo looked down tightening his grip around the crystal. "Crystallized Aether acts in a specific way. If the Crystal created from it is shattered, the pieces would eventually begin to migrate back together after time: even if having to influence the lives and fates of the people whom may be holding the pieces." He said.

With a distressed groan Romi rubbed the temples of her forehead as another stabbing wave of pain from her migraine rose to the surface.

"Miss DeLuca, It's no accident, or coincidence-whatever you want to call it, all of the Zenith Rangers gathered here in Angel Grove, They all were drawn here, you and myself included, by the power of our Zenith Crystals." Ryo said.

"Figured as much. It's the curse of Angel Grove. In fact I'm pretty sure it's in the advertisement brochure. Welcome to Angel Grove a growing metropolis with charm, culture, and a unique Paranormal history. Great location for the forces of evil to start the conquest of Earth, and for unassuming heroes to meet their magical destiny. " Romi said crossing her arms a small smirk appearing on her lips.

A small smile appeared on Ryo's face.

"Look, joking aside, Mr. Matsubara. I don't know if the Zenith Crystal is capable of saving your brother, or if Heket was using you for her own twisted plans. However, I do believe you want to help save Ashe, if not for the simple fact she's your friend, then for the fact she has saved your life on multiple occasions." Romi said shrugging her shoulders.

She shook her head and faced Ryo. "Call it a premonition or just a feeling or something; but Ashe has a better chance of survival if the Zenith Crystal is at full power and for you to be on our side. You know Ashe better than we know her, and I think this might be a beneficial in saving her." She said.

Ryo opened his mouth to speak, but Romi put her hand on his shoulder, "You couldn't do anything to save your brother from what happened; but you can help Ashe from suffering a similar fate. I think you know this, and I think you know the right thing to do." She said.

Looking down at the crystal in his hand Ryo took a deep breath. He shook his head, "My Aurora Changer was broken by that brute last night-and I can't use the Zenith Crystal without one of the transformation devices you use." He said.

"Well, you can. I've used the Crystal before I got my crystallizer; but I understand what you mean; so, here." Romi said.

Romi reached into her pocket, and pulled out the two wrist devices for the Crystallizer, both with red design on them where the others had their respective colors. She motioned for Ryo to hold out his wrists as she placed the Crystallizer on his wrist.

"Ken's working on your Aurora Changer to get it back and working: You'll be back up and running as the Southern Aurora Ranger in no time. In the mean time though, I think you'll find the Red Zenith Elysian Ranger Suit to fit you nicely." She said with a smile.

"You guys already had this made?" Ryo asked looking down at the devices.

"Liam had a feeling this might be necessary if and when we found the Eighth Zenith Ranger, so he built this last night. We really didn't expect to find you so soon." Romi said.

She then clasped her hands together. "Come-on now, Give it a try and let's get moving!" She said cheerfully.

Ryo nodded and put the crystal into the device. "Ready?"

Romi nodded and readied her Crystallizers, "Ready."

"Crystallize Soul!"

* * *

In unison the two went through the motions of their morphing call, blue and red light bursting from their Crystallizers and engulfing their bodies.

Ken dodged out of the way of the Cryofever's blades, taking advantage of the slippery ice beneath him to attempt to trip the Cybershade, however she only gracefully skated backwards from the Yellow Ranger.

A pain shot through Ken's stomach as another body fell on top of him, He looked up to see Lisa laying across his stomach, her suit was sporting some burn marks from the sparks created by the absorption of the Metalliwisps attacks which pushed her across the ice and crashing onto her husband.

"Not quite the way I'd have staged a recreation of the highlight of our fourth date going." Lisa joked wincing in pain, as she rolled off of Ken.

"Yeah, the ice-rink wasn't outdoors, and there were a lot fewer people trying to kill us. Otherwise, me sitting flat on my ass on the ice, with you stumbling over me...pretty accurate." Ken said as Lisa helped him to his feet.

Lisa swiped at the Ice-skater Cybershade with her chained daggers, she caught the Cybershade by her leg, and began to struggle to get the skater off balance.

Meanwhile a few yards away Liam, and Jasmine were tied up in battle with a group of Metalliwisps. They were doing all they could to fend off the swarms of creepy creatures from getting to the citizens whom been incased in ice along the street. Even with the help of Liam's family they found themselves just barely able.

Joey was engaged in battle with Heket. One thing had become obvious to the Violet Ranger; Ashe's sword skills probably came directly from Heket. He found it difficult to land an attack on her with his fan weapons. Most of the battle had been spent on defense against the sharp blades of her sword.

As they fought, Joey's foot found a particularly slippery patch of ice on the road, as Heket kicked him hard in the stomach, sending him crashing into a nearby car. As he tried to get to his feet, and regain his breath, Heket approached him. Her eyes glowing crimson, and a hallow mechanical laugh coming from her mask-like face.

"This is the warrior Marduk chose as his successor? He's has none of his predecessors' grace, style, strength, or compassion. Such a weak human soul. He is not even worthy of being called Zenith Aether Ranger Violet." She said as she looked down at Joey, who was clutching his stomach, and struggling to gain his footing on the ice.

Heket laughed as she drew her blade, raising it in the air ready to strike Joey. "Oh well. I suppose you had to make due with who was available to you. " She said swinging the blade downward.

Feeling his heart skip a beat, Joey wanted to let out a scream but found the fear of the impending deathblow kept the air from escaping his throat and producing sounds as he threw up his arms in some feeble attempt at defense. Behind his helmet he squeezed his eyes shut.

A thunderous neighing of a horse broke through the chaos of the battle, causing everyone to stop and turn their attention to the source of the sound. Rushing towards the Cryofever Cybershade a red light cut through the swarm of Metalliwisps and silvery mist. As the light neared it took the shape of a red Pegasus. One which the Rangers had seen before wandering around the grounds of the Light Aether Temple.

The Pegasus was followed by another horse, this one a flaming spectral like horse, atop which rode a Ranger in Red. As the flaming horse raced in the same direction of the Cybershade, becoming a blast of fire, the Red Ranger leapt from it's back, his gloved hands igniting as he cartwheeled across the ice, the intense heat of the flames melted the ice upon contact.

Staggered sounds of surprise came from the Rangers as they saw the Red Ranger standing in the clearing on the street.

"Protected by the Holy Light of the Infinite Aurora and the Flaming Fury of the Elysian Pegasus! I am Elysian Zenith Ranger One: Red!" Ryo shouted. As he spoke he motioned through the air, drawing the same triangular shape in the air, the alchemic symbol of fire. As he finished his short roll-call speech he fell into a low striking position, with one fist close to his chest and the other outstretched to the side.

Heket's eyes flashed as she saw the Red Ranger standing before her. "The Zenith Elysian Order is complete, and all the Crystal's pieces are together again. " She said as she looked at the Rangers.

"Release Ashe, and return to the abyss you came from you monster or suffer the consequences!" Ryo shouted as he ignited his fists, preparing to strike Heket.

Laughing Heket looked at the Rangers whom had gathered near the Red Ranger. "Heh. You just don't understand. Your dear Ashe is nothing without me. I've been the only thing keeping her alive all these years. Her soul is a feeble light in a sea of darkness, soon to be swallowed up." She said readying her blades.

Ryo put his hand on his chest and shook his head. "She still has the light of hope on her side. As long as I believe in her, as long as I believe in her safety and survival she still has a chance. The light of my hope will add to the light of her soul, as long as I hold hope, it's light will prevail."

Heket shrugged, "Believe what ever foolish thing you wish, but no matter what hope you have for her Ashe's soul belongs to the Nadir Elysian Empire. It is rightfully ours to do with as we wish." She said.

"We can always fight for it, and all Eight of us against you, with the Zenith Crystal stronger than ever. You probably won't fair as well as Acedia did against seven of our Eidolons." Lisa said as she brandished the cuffs on her wrist containing her chained dagger weapons.

Heket's eyes flashed darkly, as the Rangers got into position to launch their full Eidolon strike. She braced herself for the first of several strikes, readying her swords like a samurai ready to strike down her foes.

" _Liam. Have them focus their energies on the Guardian Staff. With the combined powers we can form the Crystal Lotus Cannon. It can shoot a concentrated blast of combined Zenith Aether Energies of the Eidolons_. It's sure to do some damage." Tenshii said, his voice echoing in Liam's head.

"If you think it will work. Let's give it a try." Liam said. He then looked over at his team mates telling them what Tenshii had told him, as he summoned the Guardian Staff allowing for the Rangers to form up around it to charge up their energies.

"What if it kills Ashe?" Joey asked looking over at Liam.

"It's a risk we might have to take." Ryo said before Liam could respond.

The Rangers nodded in agreement as they transferred the glowing lights of their summoning power into the White Ranger's weapon. The weapon began to glow with a opal-like radiance. turning into a ball of pure white light for a split second before it formed into a large glimmering Lotus shaped Crystal much like the Crystal in the temple. The device was surrounded by an eight handle-like levers which formed an Eight-pointed star around the base of the flower.

The weapon was turned to face towards, Heket. Ken, Lianjie, and Romi held the cannon steady from the bottom edges, while Lisa and Jasmine held it steady directly on either side. Joey and Ryo held the large flower-like weapon steady from the two handles just off to the left and right sides of the very top handle which Liam held with one hand while holding onto the stem-like object coming from the bottom of the crystal with the other.

"Hold it steady and-Fire!" Liam called out. On his command He and the other seven Rangers pushed the levers they were holding into the Crystal Flower-bud. As all the levers joined together, the tear-shaped crystal opened, into a lotus-flower shape seven petals of which had a glowing orb of different colored lights dancing in front of it. surrounding a bright white orb in the center.

In a matter of seconds the Rangers braced themselves for the kick-back of the blast of all Eight lights, as they were fired from the canon. The lights briefly formed into the Eight Eidolons charging towards Heket, before becoming beams of light once more and circling around the white light at the center, before combining with it.

As Heket saw the blast coming towards her, her eyes flashed crimson and a black glow surrounded her body. "A lovely light show, but...no." She said, as she clapped her hands together and then thrust her swords into the air out before her.

A large spectral frog-like creature, almost twice the size of Heket herself appeared before her. It opened it's wide mouth swallowing the blast whole, and holding it in it's mouth for a second, as it began to draw in the mist around it, charging the blast with the collected energy.

Liam felt terror running through his soul. It wasn't just the fear of what would be their strongest attack being turned around and blasted back at them, it was a shared fear with Tenshii over the cause of the situation. Heket had an Eidolon in her possession. This is bad.

Intense heat surrounded the Rangers as the blast was reflected back at them. Tearing at their suits. The force of the blast knocked the rangers down the street several feet, and melted the ice. The reflected blast sent enough energy down the busy street to disperse the remaining Mist and evaporate the Metalliwisps.

As the light cleared, and Liam could feel the relief of colder air over his body, he slowly got to his feet. "Guys...you okay?" He asked as he made his way to his fallen friends. One by one they got to their feet, slowly checking themselves for any signs of serious damage.

"Good thing most of it was our own energy. I think our suits filtered out the Pandora Mist, and absorbed our own energies." Ken said as he helped Lisa to her feet.

Jasmine grabbed her side and let out a shaky half laugh. "Just like being shot at through Kevlar, and falling down a flight of stairs. Brings back a few memories of the Silver Guardians." She said.

Joey pulled himself to his feet and dusted off. "Last time I felt something like this, I was in the fifth grade and fell off a horse at camp." He said.

"Her Eidolon-" Romi said biting her lip as she crossed her arms, bracing herself against the cold-aura remnants of the Eidolon's presence.

From down the street, Heket put her hands on her hips and laughed to herself. The Rangers were fearing her power already. Destroying them and taking their souls and power might be easier than she thought. Their Eidolons combined didn't seem to be a match for hers. As she looked down at the Black Crystal in her hand she gave a slight laugh.

"I told you, you'd owe me a favor one day for keeping you alive. As long as you and I are connected through this crystal I have full control over your Eidolon." She said. The Crystal gave a feeble glimmer as if responding.

One of Heket's long braids, began to move on it's own, forming up into a hand-like shape as it suddenly lashed out towards a streak of green flying through the air, which was about to hit the Demon Machine General in the temple of her forehead. As her hair wrapped around her shoulder, Heket put the crystal back up, and took the object from her hair.

"What a horrible child you are! Dishonorable!" She said as she turned towards the Green Ranger whom was rushing towards her with his bow drawn and firing a barrage of arrows.

"You're one to talk about dishonor and horrible people, when you're the one stealing bodies, and harming innocent people for their souls ." Lianjie shouted as he launched a few more arrows towards Heket, only for her hair to bat a number of the arrows away, while others were deflected by Heket's blades.

The two began to fight as they drew closer to each other. Lianjie using his bow as a something of a sword, deflecting Heket's blades, and landing a couple of hits on her armor. The battle between the two didn't last long as Heket quickly gained the upper hand. She kicked the Green Ranger in the stomach, sending him crashing to the ground, knocking his weapon from his hands and causing it to vanish with a flash of light.

"You must be as big of an idiot as your predecessor," Heket said as she approached the fallen Green Ranger "He tried to attack me too."

Heket held her blade on either side of Lianjie's neck giving him room to do little else than breathe. Her sword was close enough to his neck for him to notice the detail upon her sword. There was an decorative swirling pattern which surrounded an engraving of a five petal flower, which seemed to have been painted pink. Along the bottom of the flower, framed by a few of the swirling designs there were four flowers similar to the other flower, engraved with sets of numbers.

Lianjie felt his heart beating in his chest, as he stared at the engravings. He waited for the sword to cut across his neck rending his head from his body in one clean cut. This did not happen, as the Demon Machine General's hand suddenly began to shake causing tremors down the blade. Heket retracted the blade from the Green Ranger's throat, allowing him to quickly get to his feet.

"I won't do it! I-can't do it!" Heket said, though it sounded like she was struggling against someone. Her hair seemed to be fighting against her, wrapping itself around her wrist and keeping her from striking. The face design on one side of her crown appeared to be glowing slightly, flickering with the words Heket was saying.

"Don't interfere!" Heket said as she tried to pry her hair from around her wrist.

"I won't harm them!" She responded.

Ryo rushed up beside Lianjie, and stared at the scene going on before the two of them. Ashe is fighting back! He thought. He didn't know how she was able to make her personality present, but he knew it was her. Ashe would never kill an opponent. He knew from experience. He'd fought Ashe as her rival before. Years ago.

"Ashe! Come on! Fight against her! I know you can!" Ryo shouted encouragingly.

Heket turned towards Ryo, "Matsubara-san?" She asked. The face design flashed.

"Shut up, you insolent wretch and go away, or I swear on Briezora's power as the Greatest Demon in the Nadir Elysian realm; I will cut you with your own damn blade!" Heket growled, her eyes flashing crimson.

"I'd rather you harm me than lay your hand on the Rangers, or Matsubara-san." Ashe said, between deep ragged breaths.

The Cryofever Cybershade rushed over to Heket, her head tilted with concern. "General! Are you alright?" She asked as she hesitated to place her hand on Heket's shoulder.

Heket gave a hollow laugh. "It's just an annoying shade of the past. I need to get back to the castle and speak with Galexia to see what can be done." She said. She then reached into the pouch at her hip and withdrew a syringe of sorts filled with silver liquid, concentrated Pandora Mist.

Before anyone could react Heket jammed the syringe into Cryofever's neck, and injected her with the liquid. Cryofever cried out in a sudden pain, as suddenly silvery mist began to pour from the metallic spots on her body, and the silvery ice-like material on her face began to become larger. Spikes of the silvery substance began to poke through Cryofever's back.

"What is happening? What did she do to her?" Joey asked staring in horror as the mist suddenly began to swirl around the Cybershade.

"Just a little invention of Galexia's. Cryofever is becoming a GigaShadow now. The most advanced form of the Metalliwisp soldier. By injecting a concentration of the Pandora Mist into Cryofever, I've flooded the chamber inside her Metal-Heart which contained her soul. As she transforms the process of her soul being devoured is accelerating." Heket said with a sadistic laugh, seeing the looks of terror on the Ranger's face's as Cryofever began to grow in size.

Soon the sky-scrapers which once towered over the Ice-skater monster now only reached her waist. Her appearance seemed to have changed slightly to a more monstrous creature, all the human-aspect of her face seemed to have been warped to that of a scaly creature with silver spikes all over her face and body. Her machine components seemed to have grown with her.

"It makes them grow. Of course! Sure! What the hell, why not?" Romi said, crossing her arms and sighing.

Heket backed away from the Rangers whom were now occupied with the giant monster. She let out a laugh as she tried to back away. "I probably don't need to tell you this Rangers, but if you want to save the human soul inside Cryofever, you're on a pretty strict time limit. I'd say she's probably got about ten minutes left before her soul is consumed." She said, as she vanished into thin air with a burst of black light.

"Damn. This is not good. It'd take too long for our weapons to do any real damage to her!" Ken said, as the rangers watched the tops of some of the buildings freeze over from Cryofever's ice-power.

"The Alliance doesn't have any sort of fire-power against this. Even calling for back-up is going to take too long-and I doubt the Crystal Cannon has enough fire power to take a giant down without killing us in the process." Jasmine said clenching her fist.

"If my Aurora Changer wasn't broken, I could transform and summon the Celestial Fire Mecha, and combine them to the Aurora Light Mech: Minami. It'd have just the power we need. Damn it." Ryo said.

Almost as if responding to the Ranger's worry, their Eidolons appeared before them.

Lathi let out a harmonic ethereal screech, before landing on Liam's shoulder, and gently rubbing against his head. At the bird's touch, Liam felt a surge of confidence and power rush through him. Almost as if the Phoenix was telling him they weren't completely out of luck.

The Eidolons and the Rangers began to glow brightly. In a flash of light they vanished.

* * *

Everything seemed to have happened in a flash of color and sound. As Liam opened his eyes he found himself standing on the same water-like substance which the reflecting pool at the temple was made of, white-light darted through the surrounding water like fish. Before him he could see Angel Grove below him. He could feel the breeze on him. It felt so weird. He felt like himself, but at the same time different. Like he was only a consciousness inside of another being. Is this what Lathi and Tenshii felt whenever they joined with his

"Ah! Yes. I almost forgot all about this ability! By merging with Lathi, he and the others have the capability of channeling larger amounts of Aether Energy, and can transform into the Eidolozords! Last time we used the Eidolzords, was when we came to Earth." Tenshii's voice said.

Looking around him Liam noticed the other Eidolons seemed to have taken on their Zord Form, appearing slightly more Machine-like than normal. He wondered if his fellow rangers were as surprised and confused about this as he was.

"This is just freaky. Is this how our Eidolons feel when we morph? " He heard Lisa's voice ask, as he saw a brief pink glow from atop the head of the giant pink scorpion near by him.

"It's worth researching later. We need to stop Cryofever from running a rampage and destroying Angel Grove." Ken said, as the Bear Eidolozord advanced towards the Rampaging Ice-Skater.

The Butterfly Eidolozord, and the Phoenix Eidolozords swooped towards Cryofever, using their blade like wing-edges slicing at Cryofever and leaving a trail of sparks as they made contact with the metal of Cryofever's skin. The Ice-Skater swatted at the two, narrowly missing as they gracefully dodged,

The Sphinx Eidolozord roared from it's perch atop a near by building, furling out it's wings and releasing a barrage of blue laser energy down upon the Ice-skater. At the same the Peacock Eidolozord was doing something of a similar nature, shooting violet lights from the eye designs on it's tail feathers.

As the blasts ended, the Scorpion, Bear, and Bull Eidolozords, emerged from the smoke. The Scorpion Eidolozord snapping it's front claws at Cryofever, before turning and launching it's tail out towards the Ice-Skater, wrapping it's tail around the monster's legs, holding it still as the Bear and Bull Eidolozords stomped the ground, creating a large ground-shaking tremor, knocking the GigaShadow to the ground.

With a loud growl, Cryofever got to her feet, and shot blasts of ice from her hands as she skated through the group of Zords, spinning and kicking at the Phoenix Eidolozord flying towards her. As her bladed foot made contact with the shimmering Phoenix, Liam felt the pain course through his body, as he hit the ground. His vision became blurred temporarily as the Eidolozord made contact with the ground.

"You okay?" Romi's voice asked as Liam struggled to bring the Phoenix Eidolozord back to his feet. He felt something around his neck, as the Sphinx used it's mouth to help the bird get back to it's feet.

"Yeah, hurt like hell though." Liam said with a groan.

Cryofever laughed as she saw the Pegasus Eidolozord standing before her, stamping it's hooves against the pavement, and fluttering it's red wings like a bird. It seemed absurd to the monster a single Zord would stand in her way so defiantly.

The Pegasus's body ignited as it charged at the Ice-covered monster, the projection of fire left the winged horse's body, phasing through Cryofever and setting it's body on fire in a magnificent inferno. Light burst from Cryofever's chest as it's body was destroyed, fading into pure silver mist and evaporating into the air.

The Eidolozords disappeared in a flash of light, leaving the rangers back where they been earlier.

"It looks like Heket got away, but I'm sure she'll be back." Jasmine said as she looked around the empty street, powering down her transformation alongside the others.

"In the mean time, we've liberated another innocent soul being used for the intent of evil." Lisa said as she rubbed her shoulder, stretching her muscles.

As the Rangers left the scene, meeting up with the United Alliance Agents now filtering into the area to conduct scans to make sure the area was safe for citizens to return to, Liam turned and looked down the street. He felt a stab of concern as he saw the damaged buildings and debris left on the street.

Even if the battle had ended quickly, between Heket's Eidolon and Cryofever going giant-sized; damage had been done to the city. More damage than what Liam had ever seen done to the town before. Whenever it was just the Metalliwisps, there was barely any damage; except maybe the occasional exploded vehicle, or burns from a missed blaster hit. While he knew more destruction was likely with the Machine Empire now capable of growing their Cybershades, Liam couldn't help but feel worried about it.

"Don't worry about the destruction. The United Alliance has been backing repair efforts of Angel Grove during monster attacks since before your grandfather was a member and your mom and I were kids." He heard his father say, snapping him out of his wandering thoughts.

Liam sighed as he turned and followed his father back to the black SUV parked down the street to head back to the base. "Yeah. Okay."

* * *

Heket stumbled down the hallways of the moon fortress, using the wall for support as she clutched at her chest as it beat rapidly against her human chest. She sank to her knees, almost low enough to be enveloped by the mist hanging thick over the ground like fog. She inhaled deeply, allowing the smoke-like mist to enter into the mouth and lungs of her human body.

She felt a rush of relief run through her body as she inhaled. She leaned her head against the wall, and took a couple of deep breaths, before letting out a dark laugh as she ran her hands against the cold stone of the castle floor beneath her.

What had happened back there? Her human host's soul had never fought back like that before.

The sound of metal against stone caught her attention as she looked over to see the Cyber-Ninja Noh standing near by, with Galexia right next to him. He looked over at the Doctor General and crossed his arms. "The fragment of human soul within her is stronger than we thought. She'll need modifications to her armor to keep her human-body infused with a constant supply of Nadir Aether. Otherwise, the human's soul is going to keep threatening Heket's hold over this human's body." He said.

Heket slowly got to her feet. "I'm perfectly fine. I can handle her." She said.

Galexia examined Heket for a brief second before shaking her head, "Unfortunately, Noh is right. The Ranger's suits and Eidolons contain high levels of Zenith Aether energy, and contact with them-through the connection between you, your Eidolon, and the Crystal, over-powered the Nadir Energies you were drawing from the crystal. When the Mist evaporated, your body couldn't replenish it." She said.

Shaking his head, Noh crossed his arms, "It's to be expected dealing with human hosts. However Galexia can modify your armor well enough to keep your human body and soul suppressed even away from concentrated sources of the mist."

Galexia nodded, "Yes. If you'll just come with me we can get those modifications done right away, and next time you face the Rangers you shouldn't face the same complication again." She said, as she walked past Heket and continued down the hall on her way towards her workshop. Heket following close behind after giving Noh a brief glance of annoyance.

As the two disappeared down the darkened hallway, Noh turned around to see Acedia had appeared beside him. He didn't bother himself with a greeting as he looked at the General as he leaned against his walking-stick.

"Our troubles become more complicated now the Order has reformed, and the Zenith Aether Crystal's pieces are together." Acedia said off handedly as the two looked down the hallway. He then looked over at Noh and touched the brim of his hat briefly before turning down a branching hallway, leaving the Ninja by himself.

Noh put his hands on his hips and looked down at the ground, as if he were thinking about something for a few seconds. He then shook his head and vanished into thin air.

* * *

Night had fallen on Angel Grove hours ago, and the moon hung in the sky casting it's pale light upon the city. Ryo couldn't help but stare up at it from the small balcony of the tenth floor of an apartment building. He still found it difficult to wrap his head around everything which had happened in the last few hours.

Yesterday, It'd been just him and Ashe in search of the Zenith Crystal Fragments to rescue his brother. They spent weeks camping out doors, doing what they could for food and supplies, and shelter.

It was all different now.

He didn't have Ashe or his brother; but he'd gained new friends. New friends whom barely hesitated to take him in and accept him as part of their team despite the fact he'd viciously attacked them only days before; and giving up part of their living space to share it with him.

Not only had he found amazing new friends here in America, he'd found a new team. As he looked down at the crystallizers on his wrists he heaved a sigh, and looked towards the moon. He ignited his hand, using the flames as something of a mallet space, withdrawing a pendant. The Pendant was metal, and had the Alchemic symbol of fire surrounding a simple Phoenix design In the middle was a brilliant red diamond shaped gem. Three smaller circles were decorated outside of the triangle, each contained the smaller image of a different animal: A horse, a snake, and a sheep.

He felt a twinge of regret in his heart as he looked down at the pendant in his hands. He wondered what his brother would say if he could see him now? Ryu would probably be furious with him.

" _Why you_?" His brother's words from long ago echoed in his head.

He shook his head and looked down at the pendant, remembering the look on his brother's face, and how resentful his brother had been when he'd been presented with their father's Aurora Changer. It'd been only after Ryu's jealousy and resentment had turned him against the Aurora Rangers which the two had finally argued about it, and fully expressed his anger towards Ryo.

" _It was supposed to be me! I should have taken father's place as a Fire Summoner! I devoted my life to our heritage, and I trained hard every day! You stole my dream_!" the memory of his brother's angry voice shouted, ringing in his head.

Heaving another sigh, Ryo leaned against the stone barrier of the balcony, tracing a star pattern along the rough concrete surface with the tip of his fingers. He shook his head. The Zenith Aether Crystal Fragment had belonged to his brother originally. Ryu had given the fragment to Ryo prior to his containment during the Aurora Ranger's final battle.

A twinge of guilt hit Ryo's heart. If things had gone differently a few years ago, his brother would be the one standing here, having finally accomplished his dream of becoming a Ranger. Instead, Ryo had taken his brother's dream again. He felt a couple of tears starting to form at the corner of his eyes.

However, a new thought entered into Ryo's mind, and he couldn't help but feel a small smile tug at his lips, and a laugh bubble up in his chest. He knew it was his brother's spirit channeling through their shared summoning power, encouraging him to cheer up.

" _I never thought I'd see the day when a twin couldn't tell himself apart from his sibling-outside of photographs_." He imagined Ryu's voice saying in his head.

"What do you mean?"

" _I'm supposed to be the brooding, angst-driven one not you! You're the up-beat, positive one! This storm-cloud personality you've suddenly adopted doesn't suit you_." his brother's voice rang in his head.

"I see your point." Ryo said, pulling himself up on the edge of the balcony's barriers, running his fingers through his hair.

" _So show some pride and dignity will you? You're a Red Ranger! Remember; Even if you won't be wearing the Aurora Ranger suit, You're still an Aurora Ranger in Spirit; and you're out here representing us. Try to make us look good_."

With a cocky-grin Ryo shrugged and looked back into the apartment through the glass door. He could see the dim reflection of himself in the doorway. He ran his hand through his hair again and rubbed the stubble on his chin. "I think I can say I've got it taken care of." He thought with a slight laugh.

He could hear his brother's laughter in his head, " _Not what I meant Ryo_."

Heaving a sigh, and letting his smile rest on his lips for a few seconds, Ryo put his hands in his pockets. He looked up towards the moon and rubbed the back of his neck before giving another glance down to pendant.

"Hey-Ryu. Listen; It might be a little longer-" He thought.

" _Don't sweat it. I understand. Right now you've got a bigger responsibility to take care of. You don't need to worry about me_. "

"Thanks." Ryo thought.

_"Yeah. Well. You should probably get some rest. It's getting pretty late_."

Ryo yawned and stretched, suddenly realizing how tired he actually was. The idea of sleeping in doors with a comfortable mattress under his back, suddenly became the most appealing thing in the world to him. His back was stiff from the slowly healing bruises upon his back from the fight the other night. A hot shower, and a good night's rest; exactly what he needed.

"Sound like a good idea. I'll talk to you later." He said as he made his way back inside. As he reached the door, he looked over his shoulder back to the sky line of Angel Grove in the distance.

" _I know you're going to do great with this team. You've got great people working with you. Even if you don't believe in yourself. Remember I believe in you no matter what_." his brother's voice said.

Bowing to the empty air, and clenching his fist tight, causing the pendant to vanish in a quick burst of flames, returning to the space from which he conjured it from.

"Good night, brother." He thought before going into the apartment and closing the door behind him.

" _Oyasumi, otootosan. Ja mata_."


End file.
